The Philosopher's Secret
by Yellow Mask
Summary: NOW COMPLETE! RATING CHANGED. A whisper of another way to create the Philosopher’s Stone, a document titled 'The Philosopher’s Secret'. But the homunculi are after the stone as well, and there is very little they will not do to obtain it. Edwin, Royai
1. Prologue

**The Philosopher's Secret**

**By Yellow Mask**

**Spoilers:** General Philosopher's Stone spoilers, also for Dante and the homunculi.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own FMA.

_AN: This is anime-based, and probably set sometime after the Lab Five incident. But there are several factors in this story that came into play later in the series, so this is essentially an imaginary universe of my own making. Assume that it takes place after Lab Five, but there may be entire-series spoilers present._

**Prologue**

"So, this is the document Sheska thought might help us out?" Ed asked, glancing at the yellowed pages in Al's hand.

Apparently, Sheska had rented a book on Latin philosophy from the library that she had then forgotten to return. But that meant that when the library burned down, the book was one of the few that remained entirely intact. And shoved between two pages, Sheska had found a sheaf of notes, written in Latin. Her understanding of Latin was limited, but enough to understand that it talked of the Philosopher's Stone.

So naturally, she handed it to Ed and Al.

"Do you know Latin, brother?" Al asked.

"Some."

Several of Tucker's books had been written in Latin, so Ed had learnt some of the basics of the language to pass the alchemy exam.

He took the notes, feeling the crumbly texture of the paper. They were old. Very old. There was no author mentioned, only a title scrawled at the very top of the first page, as though it were only added as an afterthought. Ed's brow furrowed as he read it.

_'Philosophi Specialis'_

'_The Philosopher's Secret'_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Ed hadn't budged for over half an hour. His eyes would over the notes, he would scribble something in his journal, then turn his attention back to the notes once more. Finally, Al could stand it no longer.

"Have you managed to find anything?"

"You could say that," Ed replied. "The writing talks about a person called the Philosopher. The first person to create a red stone that bypassed the law of Equivalent Exchange…"

"That's why it's called a Philosopher's Stone!"

"Exactly. It seems to imply that…that he didn't know that it required human sacrifice – the transmutation just pulled people in…but I'm not too sure about that, my Latin's really rusty. And then it says he…he did something with the stone…hid it somewhere?" Ed shook his head. "We need a Latin dictionary or something, I'm tapped."

**oooooooo**

The train hissed as it pulled away, leaving Winry standing on the platform at Central Station, fumbling with her home-drawn map. Pinako had sent her to Central to pick up a supply of automail alloy. The last delivery boy had damaged the goods so badly they had been forced to reorder, and now Pinako wouldn't trust anyone else with them.

Still, maybe it would give her a chance to see Ed and Al. Even if it was only a quick visit. She really did want to see them, especially Ed…

Winry gave herself a firm mental shake. _'Business first,'_ she berated herself, _'Then you can pay social calls'._

She peered at the scrap of paper in her hands, showing her the way to the blacksmith's. So it was left turn, then the second right…

Nose glued to the sketch, Winry ambled down the road.

**oooooooo**

"Thanks for helping me carry this," Winry smiled.

Jason, the blacksmith's nephew, was assisting her in lugging the heavy metal sheets back to her hotel room. Winry had decided to stay the night in Central, make sure the supplies were in order, see some of the sights, and maybe visit the Elric brothers before she went home.

Not that she wasn't seeing some sights now. Jason had proved to be a fairly capable guide, pointing out several attractions already. Like the Crystal Fountain, an enormous structure without crack or seam, carved whole from a gigantic quartz. Or the Teller of Tales, a marble pillar fifty feet high, on which was carved hundreds of folktales in pictographic form.

A raucous clanging filled the darkening sky, making Winry look up.

"Is that a bell?"

Jason nodded, shifting the metal in his arms. "The Stone Bell, the oldest bell in the city. It was carved centuries ago from this weird red stone, but it's in such perfect condition they still ring it today."

"Wow," Winry murmured, "That's what you call good craftsmanship."

It was rather awkward to negotiate their way through the crowds with unwieldy sheets of alloy dragging on their arms and obscuring their vision. So they eventually crashed into someone, Winry wasn't surprised in the least.

"I'm so sorry," Winry blurted when she felt the impact. "It's just this metal-"

"Winry?"

Winry shifted, trying to peer around the supplies. She was startled to realise just who she had ploughed into.

"Ed? Al?"

"What are you doing here!" Ed asked, then almost winced. He hadn't meant to make it sound so accusatory. It was actually nice to see her, it really was…

"Picking up some supplies," Winry said, a little hurt by his tone. She jiggled the metal in her arms for emphasis, groaning as the weight made her stagger. "Speaking of which, I desperately need to get them back to the hotel-"

"I'll take them, Winry," Al offered, easily lifting the heavy sheets from her.

"Thanks, Al," Winry beamed. "If it's not too much trouble, could you take Jason's as well?"

"Jason?" Ed eyed the boy suspiciously as Al took his burden from him.

Ed couldn't explain it, but he wasn't happy about some strange guy hanging around Winry. Logically, he knew the burning sense of resentment settling in the pit of his stomach was completely irrational, but he couldn't seem to help it.

"Jason's from the blacksmith's," Winry explained. "Thanks for the help, Jason."

With a smile and a wave, Jason disappeared into the crowd, heading back to his uncle's shop. Ed felt unaccountably relieved. Winry hadn't introduced Jason to them, so he couldn't be anyone important. Like a boyfriend, for instance…

"Follow me, Al," Winry continued. "My hotel's this way."

**oooooooo**

"So, why are you getting supplies?" Ed asked as Al deposited the metal on the floor of Winry's hotel room. "Aren't there delivery boys for this kind of stuff?"

"Granny doesn't trust them," Winry said succinctly. "Thanks heaps," she addressed Al.

"No problem," Al said.

"Just out of curiosity, where were you guys headed, anyway?"

"The library," Ed replied. "Which reminds me, Al, we gotta go."

"Goodbye, Winry," Al called as they hurried out.

" 'Bye," Winry waved just before the door shut abruptly.

"Nice to see you, too," she muttered to the empty room, miffed at their hasty departure.

**oooooooo**

"Brother, do you think we should have spent a little more time with Winry?" Al asked as they searched the shelves of the newly-reconstructed library for a Latin dictionary.

"Ah, she'll get over it," Ed waved a hand dismissively. "Besides, we can go see her tomorrow."

"How do you know she'll still be in Central tomorrow?" Al pointed out. ""She said herself that she was here to pick up supplies, and she might have gone back to the hotel just so she could pack her things. She might be leaving tonight."

Ed paused, realising with a start that Al was right. Winry hadn't said when she was leaving. He'd just assumed…and for all he knew, she could be boarding a train right now.

For some reason, panic rose in him at the thought of Winry leaving so soon after he'd seen her.

"Grab a Latin dictionary, Al, and we'll head back right away."

**oooooooo**

Winry was getting ready for bed when someone knocked on her door. She was surprised to see Ed and Al standing outside, with a thick book tucked under Al's arm.

"Winry! We were afraid you'd already left." Never mind that he was a suit of armour, Al still managed to look relieved.

"I'm staying the night," Winry said blankly. "I'm leaving _tomorrow_ evening."

"Good," Ed grinned. "We were kinda worried we'd, um…been a bit short with you…or something…" His cheeks were flushed, and he avoided her eyes, but he looked genuinely repentant. "So, we'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure," Winry smiled. As they nodded and disappeared down the corridor, she called out, "And don't worry about being short with me."

'_I'm used to it,'_ was what she did not voice aloud as she closed the door.

**oooooooo**

_AN: This may seem a little slow, but the grounding is necessary._


	3. Chapter 2

_AN: Everyone was so nice about the slow chapter, I thought I'd give you one more before  
I went on holiday._

**Chapter 2**

"He absorbed the stone into his blood," Ed whispered.

The 'Philosopher's Secret' document was spread in front of him, beside the open Latin dictionary.

"Into his blood!" Al yelped. "Wouldn't that hurt?"

"Dunno…he obviously managed it, so it can't have been that bad."

"But if it was in his blood…it's gone." Al tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice.

"Not according to this." Ed tapped the ancient pages, becoming excited. "It says that he…it's a bit foggy, but it seems to say he hid it somewhere."

"He hid his own blood?"

"Yeah, sounds pretty weird, but there's this passage…_ cognatus lapis__campana_," Ed mused, flicking through the Latin dictionary. "That should mean…blood…stone…bell. Blood of the Stone Bell?"

"The Stone Bell!" Al exclaimed. "It's old, and it's supposed to be carved from a red stone…you don't think…?"

Ed grinned, golden eyes blazing. Forget making a Philosopher's Stone, it looked like they were about to be handed one! "I think we should check it out. Right now."

He rose, but was stopped by Al's voice. "Not now, brother! It's nearly midnight, the whole belltower will be locked up!"

"We can always transmute a door."

"Brother, what difference can a few hours make?"

"Al, we may be inches away from the stone itself!"

"But no one knows about these notes, it's not like anyone will get there before us."

Ed glared for several long moments, then capitulated. "Fine," he growled, tossing his coat and boots to the floor and sliding between the sheets of his bed. "But we go first thing in the morning."

"Actually, we have to report to Colonel Mustang first thing in the morning."

"Fine! We'll go second thing in the morning, then!"

Al stifled a snicker. Sometimes Ed was just too easy to rile.

But long after his brother had gone to sleep, Al stared out the window. Not reading, just gazing at the dark shadow in the stars that was Central's belltower. Wondering if the Philosopher's Stone really dwelt in that imposing structure. And hardly able to believe that their ultimate goal, after seeming so distant for so long, might be just within reach.

He could understand why Ed didn't want to sleep.

**oooooooo**

Ed and Al were unusually cheerful and especially fidgety when they reported, and Roy commented on this.

"We may be on the brink of a major breakthrough," Ed smirked.

"Oh, really?" Roy raised one black eyebrow. "Well, let me know how it goes, won't you? Dismissed." He went back to his ever-present paperwork.

Ed gritted his teeth. Somehow, Mustang's superior attitude never failed to get on his nerves. At times, the older man didn't even have to try to annoy him.

He slammed the door on his way out, and Roy was unable to hold in a chuckle.

"Riling Edward is a dangerous occupation, sir." Riza's voice held a definite tone of reprimand.

Roy grinned unrepentantly. "But it's so much fun."

A stern glare was his only answer, which just made his grin wider. He adored her when she was feisty.

**oooooooo**

Ed was startled to find the door to their rooms open.

"Must have forgotten to lock it," he muttered, stepping into the room.

But both he and Al soon discovered they had not forgotten to lock the door. Their room had been broken into.

The table they had been working at was overturned; the Latin dictionary hurled into a corner so violently the cover had bent. But everything else was undisturbed.

"What the hell…?" Ed swore, gathering up the scattered pages.

"Who did this?" Al wondered, looking around the room to see if anything else was damaged.

"I don't think anything was taken," he said at last, clanking through the bedroom.

But Ed was sitting on the floor, rifling frantically through the papers.

"No," he hissed, "No, no, NO!"

"What is it?"

"The notes!" Ed cried, "The 'Philosopher's Secret'! They're gone! They've taken it!"

"What!"

"They're gone," Ed repeated, defeat riding his tone. "Nothing else…just the notes. Whoever broke in…that was all they wanted…"

Ed leapt up, galvanised into action. "Come on, Al! If someone's taken the notes, they know as much as we do, maybe more!" His hand closed around the reassuring presence of the leather-bound book in his pocket. "I've still got the notes in my journal, but we need to move, now!"

They charged out the door so fast they never realised they didn't close the door.

**oooooooo**

"It does look like the stone," Al commented, sounding excited.

Both brothers stood in the top of Central's belltower, in front of the Stone Bell. It was forged of a strange mineral, with an almost ruby-like sheen and texture. Ed's breathing was a little uneven, staring at what could be the end of their quest. Could this bell really be…?

"Let's find out if it's the real thing."

Ed stepped beside the bell, trying to quell the hope rising in his chest.

"I'll try to transmute something," he told Al, "If it really is the Philosopher's Stone, it won't demand Equivalent Exchange. I'll try to make…"

Ed's mind cast around wildly, and an image of Winry floated to the surface. "I'll make a sheet of metal."

"Where did you get that idea?" Al's mischievous tone suggested he knew very well what Ed had been thinking of.

Doing his best to ignore his brother, Ed clapped his hands and pressed his palms to the bell. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, to Ed's dismay, the bell warped, and a sheet of metal formed from the stone.

"It needed Equivalent Exchange." Al had never sounded more disappointed.

"It's not the stone," Ed muttered. "Just our stinking luck!"

He plunged his hand into his pocket and brought out his journal, flicking through his notes. "Maybe I mistranslated…"

"But we had a dictionary…" Al sighed. "Maybe it meant something else, something besides the Stone Bell."

"And now whoever stole the papers are probably miles ahead of us by now…" Ed cursed, kicking the bell viciously before starting down the stairs.

"Brother, wait!" Al called, "We need to fix up the bell, you can't just leave!"

**oooooooo**

Winry knocked, surprised when the door opened immediately. She peered around the jamb, but all that greeted her was an empty room.

Ed and Al weren't in.

Winry sighed, disappointed but not really surprised. They'd probably found a new lead or something, and just forgotten to lock the door when they left.

And it wasn't like she'd given them any warning of her visit. She'd come to the military quarters without any invitation, just in the hope she could see them before she left. Pinako had rung early, saying she needed Winry back right away. So the young mechanic was booked into the next train to Risembool, and she had been hoping to say goodbye.

Well, she'd write them a note, at least.

Grabbing a blank sheet of paper and a pen, and dropping her toolkit in the bedroom, Winry began to write.

_Ed and Al,_

_Don't bother calling into the hotel, I've checked out. Granny called, and I need to go back right away. It was great to see you guys!_

_Winry._

_P.S. You better take good care of your automail, Ed!_

She was searching for a convenient place to pin her note when the door opened. Winry jumped and spun around, her hand already reaching for her wrench.

She relaxed when she realised it was Ed.

"Ed," she smiled. "I thought I might not get to see you again before I had to leave."

On impulse, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. Winry was surprised when Ed hugged back, just as fiercely.

And she nearly passed out when he kissed her cheek.

"Ed?" she queried, drawing back ever so slightly.

And went stiff. She could have sworn…just for a second…Ed's eyes had been…purple?

"Yeah, Winry?" There was something wrong with his voice, too. It wasn't the words, or the tone, or the accent or anything quite so obvious. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was there.

Something was definitely wrong.

"Where's Al?" she asked, striving for a casual tone.

"Oh, he's around somewhere," Ed smirked, placing a casual kiss on her lips as though he did it all the time. "But I need you to come with me."

Winry knew something was wrong. Ed always knew where Al was, and if he didn't, he panicked. Ed and Al were practically inseparable, and Winry could admit that she sometimes wished Ed cared that much about her.

But this was downright strange. He was acting as though they were already a couple, hugging her, kissing her. It was almost as though he were a different person.

"So, will you come with me?" Ed asked, a hard glitter in his eyes that suggested painful consequences of she refused.

That clinched it. Ed would never physically hurt her.

For a heartbeat, Winry panicked. What could she say? She didn't know what was going on, but she knew she had to act normal – what would she normally do?

"Sure, Ed," Winry replied, plastering a false smile on her face. "Just let me get my tools, I left them in the bedroom – you know, from the maintenance I did earlier."

"I remember," he nodded.

Well, that was more proof that something strange was going on. She hadn't done any maintenance, why was he agreeing with her?

Winry trotted into the sparse bedroom, picked her up her tools, then looked around for something that could help her. She had to tell Al, somehow…

Her eyes fell on the jar of grease under a bed. Grease for Al's armour, ensuring his joints didn't squeak or his metal rust. It wasn't much, but it was all she had. Winry grabbed the jar and snatched an old receipt and a pen from the bedside table. Working as quickly as she could, she wrote another note, this one addressed to Al.

_Al, _

_I was going to go back home, but then Ed came in. He was acting really strange, and he asked me to go somewhere with him. He looked like he was going to hit me if I refused. I hope I'm wrong, but I've got a really bad feeling about this, so I'm going to put your grease on the bottom of my shoes (I promise to buy you some more later). I'm not sure if this will help, but it's all I can do. Please, try to follow us._

_Winry._

She tucked it inside a thick alchemy book resting on the covers, knowing it was hardly conspicuous, but not daring to make it more visible in case Ed came in and saw it.

Working quickly, she emptied the entire jar of grease, silently thanking anyone who was listening that it was clear. Ed would probably never know she was leaving a sticky, slippery trail for Al to follow.

She didn't quite know how he was going to follow, but she hoped he could use alchemy to do something to the grease.

Winry smeared it across her the soles of her shoes, in a layer so thick she wondered how she was going to walk.

"You found them, yet?" Ed's voice came from the other room, making her jump.

"Be there in a second," Winry answered, hastily wiping her greasy hand.

It was a little awkward to walk with such greasy shoes, but Winry found out that if she just stepped down flat – the entire shoe making contact at once, instead of the heel or toe first – she was able to pass it off as a weird limp.

"What's up," Ed said, eying her strange gait.

"Nothing." Winry tried to smile. "I think I was tinkering with the automail too long, my legs have really stiffened up."

Ed took her hand and guided her out of the room.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Dread settled in Winry's stomach like a pound of lead. Ed had taken her into Fuhrer's office, more specifically, the _deserted_ Fuhrer's office. Why?

And she wasn't comfortable with the fact that, after travelling through a fairly crowded corridor, they were suddenly, chillingly alone.

"Why are we here, Ed?"

Ed grinned. A sadistic, satisfied, totally-unlike-Ed, grin. "So no one will hear us."

There was a sudden flash of white light, so sudden it hurt her eyes. And it was no longer Ed standing in front of her. It was a sallow-skinned teen, with purple, cat-like eyes and green strands of hair that fanned around his head as though gelled into shape.

Reacting on instinct, Winry hurled her wrench. He dodged with inhuman skill, and her wrench was left to impact the wall and drop behind the couch. Cursing at the loss of her weapon of choice, Winry bolted for the door, opening her mouth to scream…

The creature moved so fast it practically blurred across the room, tackling her into the desk, her toolbox clattering to the floor. A cold hand clapped across her mouth, stifling her shriek before it could even begin, and a strong arm shackled her waist.

Winry was dragged across the room, to the bookshelf on the opposite side of the office. The toolbox was kicked along in front of them – she doubted her captor would want to leave such obvious evidence of her abduction. Winry dug in her heels, trying to resist, but her greased shoes skidded easily over the floor.

Her abductor did something she couldn't see, and the shelf slid away, revealing an elevator. As she was propelled towards it, Winry planted both feet on either side of the opening and pushed against her kidnapper, thrashing wildly and clawing at the hand over her mouth.

It did no good. The creature holding her simply kicked her tools inside, spun around and then yanked her into the elevator backwards. Winry tried to hook her feet around the edges, but a sharp and savage pull dislodged them.

She sank her teeth into the palm covering her mouth, and it was yanked away with a loud curse. But the hidden door had hissed shut, and any scream Winry made would go unheard.

Not that she ever got the chance to make any. Apparently angered by her bite, her captor dealt her a flat blow. The force behind the vicious backhand snapped her head to the side, and she felt the wall impact her temple with weight of a freight train.

The world dissolved.

**oooooooo**

Ed was startled to find the door open when they returned. He rushed inside, half-expecting to find they'd been robbed again. Both brothers breathed a sigh of relief when they realised nothing was missing.

If anything, something had been added. A piece of paper was tacked to the table, and Ed scanned it swiftly.

_Ed and Al,_

_Don't bother calling into the hotel, I've checked out. Granny called, and I need to go back right away. It was great to see you guys, and you better take care of your automail, Ed!_

_Winry._

"So Winry's gone home," Al said, sounding crestfallen.

"I guess," Ed muttered, sliding the note away.

He felt uncharacteristically subdued. He'd really wanted to see her…

Al clanked into the bedroom, emerging with the latest alchemy text. He opened it…and cried out.

"Brother!" he yelled, "Look at this!"

Ed snatched the proffered receipt, finding a message on the back. The handwriting was messy, hurried, but still recognisable as Winry's.

_Al, _

_I was going to go back home, but then Ed came in. He was acting really strange, and he asked me to go somewhere with him. He looked like he was going to hit me if I refused. I hope I'm wrong, but I've got a really bad feeling about this, so I'm going to put your grease on the bottom of my shoes (I promise to buy you some more later). I'm not sure if this will help, but it's all I can do. Please, try to follow us._

_Winry._

"You came in?" Al wondered.

"But I never…" Ed began. "So…so that means…"

For an instant Ed could have sworn his blood turned to ice. There was only one creature he knew that could change shape.

Envy.

Envy had come in disguised as him, and taken Winry somewhere. Where? And why? What could the homunculus possibly want with her?

Ed didn't know, and there was no time to ponder it. Envy had Winry, and Ed cringed at the thought of what he might do to her.

"We have to go after them," he said urgently, striding to the door with Al following close behind. "Winry said she put grease on her shoes, so…"

Ed clapped his hands as he strode out the door. Pressing his palms to the floor, he transmuted the finish on the wood to react with the elements of the grease, turning it's colour to jet-black.

He waited.

Black boot prints began appearing across the corridor, leading to the offices. It was lucky the corridor was empty, or it would have raised some questions. Ed and Al followed the trail, Ed growing increasingly anxious. It was becoming extremely obvious that Envy hadn't taken Winry out of the building. Why? What had he done to her?

Ed turned a corner and ran straight into Riza.

"What are you doing?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"We don't have time to explain," Ed hissed, trying to push past her.

"Winry's been kidnapped," Al told her, "And we're going after them."

To their surprise, Riza drew her gun and began to follow them.

"What are you doing? You can't come!" Ed yelled.

"Technically, I'm required to," Riza pointed out. "In the case of civilian kidnapping within the barracks, any military personnel on hand are required to assist in their recovery."

"What's the other reason?" Al asked.

Riza shrugged. "I've met Winry, I like her."

So all three continued down the hallway, Ed renewing the transmutation at critical intervals as the blackened grease began to fade. Through several corridors, finally disappearing behind an imposing door.

"Is that...?" Ed began weakly.

"The Fuhrer's office," Riza nodded, her mind racing. "He's involved. Somehow, he's involved."

"Then let's get going," Ed snarled, clapping his hands and preparing to break the door down.

"Not yet," Riza hissed, one hand on his shoulder pulling him back.

"Not yet! Envy led Winry in there to do who knows what to her, and you say 'not yet'!"

"The Fuhrer's in there," Riza snapped. "What do you think will happen if you just charge right in and attack him? He'll have you arrested, and executed for treason! How can you help Winry if you're dead!"

In that split second, Ed was closest to hitting Riza he had ever been. The adrenaline pounding through his veins urged him to just smash the door down, find Winry and to hell with the consequences. But cold, frustrating logic asserted itself. If he charged in, the Fuhrer could have a dozen guards called within seconds. Including other State Alchemists. He wouldn't last long against a force like that, and then what would happen to Winry?

With a great effort of will, he relaxed his arms.

"Well, what would you suggest?" Ed gritted out, his jaw clenched tightly.

"If the Fuhrer is involved, we may have traitors within the military ranks," Riza mused, "I'll inform the Colonel, maybe we can try to ferret them out."

Al seemed about to speak, but Ed cut him off. "We don't have time for something like that! We have to get Winry back NOW!"

"But brother," Al piped up, "We can't stop the homunculus by ourselves – we need the Colonel's help!"

Ed's face contorted as he stared at the door in front of him. He knew they were right, but he'd be damned if he liked swallowing it. Winry had been taken behind this door by a homunculus wearing his face, what had happened once she was on the other side?

With a muttered curse, he spun around and strode back down the corridor.

**oooooooo**

Al watched, a little frightened, as Ed proceeded to rampage through their room, cursing at the top of his lungs, sweeping books and pens to the floor. But he could sympathise with his brother – Winry was a prisoner of the homunculi, and as terrible as Al felt, he could only imagine what it was like for Ed.

Ed's rage began to slowly expend itself, like a clockwork toy winding down. He collapsed into a chair and let his head fall against the edge of the table.

He closed his eyes, shuddering silently. "What's happening to her?" he murmured dully. "What could they possibly want from her?"

Al couldn't answer. It wasn't like homunculi needed automail, and Winry had no alchemical knowledge that they could hope to harvest. What then?

Or maybe they didn't want her for her skills. Could they have abducted Winry purely to manipulate Ed? Could she have been kidnapped simply because they knew she could be used as leverage?

Al was jerked out of his musings by a choked cry. Ed was had risen to his feet, and was staring down at the Latin dictionary, open on the table before him.

"Brother, what is it?"

Ed made an inarticulate sound in the back of his throat, golden eyes wide and filled with horror. "Al," he whispered, "I...the book..."

He swallowed, and seemed to collect himself with some difficulty. "_Cognatus_...it doesn't mean blood."

"Brother...?"

"He didn't hide the stone...he passed it on. Bloodline..._cognatus_ means bloodline..."

"But what-?"

"Bloodline, Al!" Ed suddenly yelled. "_Cognatus lapis campana_ doesn't mean 'blood of the Stone Bell'...bloodline...ROCKBELL BLOODLINE!"

"Winry!" Al gasped, "She..."

"That's why they took her," Ed groaned. "They wanted..."

They wanted Winry's blood. The blood passed down from her ancestor, the Philosopher, the man who absorbed his creation into his very body. The blood that contained the potential to become what the homunculi so desperately desired.

Within the blood that flowed through her veins, Winry held the key to the creation of the Philosopher's Stone.

And now, the homunculi had Winry.

_AN: The story should be a bit more fast-paced now. I'll try to keep the updates coming, but I'm going on holiday soon so I can't make any promises._


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_AN:This chapter is pretty rough. Don't read if you have a weak stomach._**  
**

Winry had a strange dream. She dreamed she was a child again, seeing alchemy for the first time. This wasn't an unusual occurrence, she dreamed about it often. Even as a teenager, the terrifying vortex of light, the sight of the bodiless face writhing like a condemned soul of hell could still be recalled with stark clarity.

And most of all, Winry remembered the most terrifying aspect of that transmutation. The strange feeling that had swamped her body.

Not quite pain, but definitely not pleasure, she had felt as though her blood was humming. As though every artery, vein and capillary of her body was twisting inside out, her skin crawling as, within her very blood, something _reacted._

The transmutation itself had been terrifying, but that feeling, more than anything else, had been what made her scream. She'd felt it then, and felt it every time she witnessed alchemy afterwards.

Winry had adjusted to it, of course. Rather like adjusting to walking with water in a shoe – it was uncomfortable, but not totally debilitating, and she soon learned to get along in spite of it. But every transmutation performed in her presence always felt the same. She'd never seen fit to mention it, she'd just assumed everyone felt the same as she did.

But this time, the dream was different.

_Winry screamed and collapsed to the floor, her hands over her eyes. But the floor warped beneath her like a living thing. She screamed again, and tried to crawl away, but the wood against her hands parted like water, and she fell into blackness._

_Her arms flailed, and something seared across her right hand. Winry barely had time to register it before she impacted something soft._

_The darkness around her wasn't complete. There was a faint light coming from somewhere far above, a dim greenish glow. Winry raised her hand, examining the red weal across her palm. It stung in the air._

_As she watched, the skin parted grotesquely, and bright red blood welled to the surface. There was no pain, only a foggy sensation of her flesh tearing. The cut began to tingle, like sherbet on her tongue. Disobeying all laws of gravity, the blood began to float, tiny droplets breaking off from the pool and rising into the air. Winry watched as though mesmerised, enchanted by the red beads. As they rose, the droplets seemed to solidify, turning hard and crystalline..._

Winry woke up, and became aware of several things at once. She was lying on her side, resting on a bed in a dimly-lit room. Her wrists were bound behind her back, and her right arm was tingling from having borne her bodyweight for so long. Her head throbbed...and she was feeling nauseous. Extremely nauseous.

Winry rolled, managing to lurch to her feet and stumble to the trashcan in time to regurgitate the contents of her stomach. Spitting into the bin to remove the last of the foul taste, she took stock of her situation.

Her head still hurt, but it had diminished to a dull ache and, after throwing up, her nausea had passed. Her feet were free, but her hands had been secured behind her back, tied at the wrists with rough rope. She tested her bonds but they remained frustratingly solid. Whoever tied her had known what they were doing.

The room's lone window was shuttered tightly, and the door firmly closed. Winry kicked it, testing it's strength, and found it completely unyielding. Locked then, or barred, or bolted, or barricaded. Either way, it wasn't going to open easily.

The room itself was small, with a bed opposite the door, a small bookshelf and a desk situated beside the trashcan she had made such desperate use of. The whole place seemed to scream 'money'. Winry didn't know much about timber, but the deep, rich wood of both the desk and bookshelf looked expensive. She was willing to bet the sheets she'd just been lying on cost something in the triple-digit zone, and the slim, scarf-like hangings from the posts looked like silk.

Where was she? And why was she here?

Winry had no idea, but she was sure the answers to those questions couldn't be good. She'd been kidnapped by a creature that could turn into Ed, and woken – clearly a prisoner – in a strange room.

Fear rushed up from her throat in a bitter wave. Swallowing hard, she fought the urge to cry. Tears would get her nowhere. If she wanted to avoid whatever was coming, crying about wouldn't do anything. Escape would. She'd have to get free first, though. She'd get the ropes off, and then she'd...

Well, she didn't know what she could do next, but she did know that to have any hope of escape, her hands had to be free. She shifted her hands, trying to stretch her fingers to the knot that held them, but was met with no success. They were too tight to roll off or wiggle out of – she'd have to find something to cut them.

Except the smell emanating from the trashcan was beginning to permeate the room. Wrinkling her nose, Winry searched for something to cover it. There was no lid in sight. Her eyes landed on the books, resting in the shelf, and she made her way over to them.

They were all alchemy texts – hardly anything she could understand let alone use to escape – and Winry's attention was drawn by a particularly large one in a red binding. That would probably cover the entire bin.

It was a little awkward with her hands behind her back, but Winry managed to hook her fingers around the book's spine, and then dump the textbook face down on top of the bin.

It worked well, and Winry felt an almost immediate relief from the stink. Feeling rather chuffed, she resumed her search for something to cut her bonds.

She cast her eyes about the room, but the only things that appeared even half-way sharp were the nibs of the pens resting on the desk. They weren't much, but they were all she had.

Unable to reach them with her hands behind her back, Winry realised she might have to resort to using her feet. Which meant she'd have to get her boots off.

Winry sat on the bed, her left ankle resting on her right knee. Mentally thanking anyone who was listening for her flexibility, she bent down and seized one of her bootlaces between her teeth, pulling the knot loose and then kicking the boot off. She repeated the exercise with her other shoe, and toed both of them under the bed. The socks could be worked off with a lot of wriggling.

With her toes free, Winry managed to ease the pens from the desk with her feet. They clattered onto the chair, and she turned her back, fingers groping for the metal nibs. She found one, and began to saw the tip across the ropes.

**oooooooo**

"Are you sure about this?" Roy asked, staring at Ed.

"Of course I'm sure!" the blonde alchemist exploded. "Don't you see? That's why they kidnapped her, that's what they want her for! We have to go in there now!"

Al and Riza stood to one side, choosing not to interfere in what was on the verge of exploding into a truly savage argument.

"Wait!" Roy snapped, "Take it easy."

"TAKE IT EASY! THEY'RE GOING TO USE WINRY TO MAKE THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE AND YOU'RE TELLING ME TO TAKE IT EASY!"

"First, how long have they had Winry for?" Roy continued, apparently unfazed by Ed's screaming.

"We don't know," Al sighed miserably, "She could have come in any time after we left, so anywhere from two hours to just under twenty minutes."

"Well then, worst case scenario, the homunculi already have the stone and Winry is dead-"

"WINRY ISN'T DEAD!"

"It's worst case scenario only, Fullmetal."

"Why are we still standing around here when we should be going after them!"

"Think about it!" Roy said harshly. "You're talking about an all-out war on the homunculi, which will require a greater number than we currently have!" He indicated the four people in the room; Riza, Al, Ed and himself.

"And," he continued, more calmly, "If the Fuhrer is involved, we have no way of knowing how deeply this reaches into the military."

Riza stepped in. "The only people we can truly rely on are Havoc, Breda, Falman and Fuery."

"What about Armstrong?" Al pointed out. "And Ross and Brosh?"

"Armstrong is actually a good idea," Roy mused, "But your one-time escorts have been sent to the East to try and quell an uprising – can you think of anyone else?"

"Just our teacher," Ed sighed. "Al, can you call her and ask her to come help?"

"Sure," Al said as his brother began to walk from the room. "But where are you going?"

"I'm going to call Pinako." Ed's gait was heavy, slumped. Defeated.

Outside the office, Ed leaned against the wall, one hand over his face. The homunculi needed Winry's blood, but what were they doing to her in the meantime? He attempted to squash the horrific images that rose at the thought.

He tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. This was his fault. If he'd only double-checked the passage before rushing off to the Stone Bell...Winry would still be here.

It was like when they were prisoners of Barry the Chopper, only worse. That time, she'd been right in front of him. If she'd been hurt, he would have known, at least. And he'd been there, as well, able to give her what paltry protection he could offer. Now, Winry was far away from him, and he had no way of knowing whether she was hurt, or scared, or suffering...

His insides twisted with worry and recrimination, Ed picked up the phone.

**oooooooo**

Winry cursed viciously. That had been her last pen nib. The thin metal had gradually broken into smaller and smaller fragments, until they were too small to use. And that had been the last piece. She'd have to come up with something else.

Her fingernails couldn't reach the rope, and they were too blunt to do much good. She couldn't saw it over the bed frame – that would only tighten the knot. But there was nothing else that could help her.

Winry slowly began twisting her wrists within the rope. She winced as the skin was scraped raw, but she kept going, trying to coax the ropes to loosen. If she kept this up for long enough...

A sudden click on the other side of the door made her motions cease. Watching the heavy wood begin to open, Winry stepped into the center of the room and squared her shoulders. Trying to prepare for whoever or whatever came in, but feeling chillingly vulnerable standing there in bare feet with her hands tied behind her back.

She recognised the creature as soon as he stepped in the room. It was her kidnapper.

"You!" she shrieked, anger overriding fear, "Who are you!"

Envy was taken aback. After spending nearly an hour in a locked, shuttered room to contemplate her fate, he expected her to be a cowering, crying wreck, pleading for her release. He hadn't anticipated a fiery battler, standing with feet planted wide as she demanded his name.

Unexpected, but amusing all the same. He found himself wondering just what would make her cower.

"The name's Envy," he smirked. "And I've waited a long time to meet Fullmetal's whore."

Winry's spine stiffened with indignation. "What did you just call me?"

Envy didn't answer, just stepped in close to her. Winry fought the urge to shrink backwards, and instead tilted her chin defiantly, refusing to be intimidated. He lifted a lock of her hair from her shoulder and ran it through his fingers, caressing the strands. Winry kept herself still, her enraged glare covering her fear.

Envy ran the back of fingers down her cheek, his smirk growing broader as she twisted her head away, still refusing to move her feet. Her skin had been softer than he would have thought, considering her profession. His eyes drifted up and down her body, pleased with what he saw.

Winry swallowed, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling at Envy's blatant perusal of her body. Winry finally stepped away, desperate for some space between them. But Envy followed, every step forward echoing her movements backward. Dread knotted her stomach, and she could feel the palms of her hands beginning to sweat.

Winry came up against the bed. There was no more room to retreat. She tensed, preparing to fight.

"You don't scare me," she snarled, her eyes spitting venom.

"Well, we can always work on that," the corners of his lips tilted in a sadistic smile.

Winry found herself knocked down to the bed so quickly her vision blurred. Her bound hands dug into her spine, and her breath came fast and hard, her heart hammering with fear. She tried to work her way upright, but he moved with blinding speed, straddling her hips and pinning her shoulders to the bed.

It was all too clear what he wanted.

Winry panicked, thrashing wildly. Her hands were tied, so she used her feet, bending them suddenly to knee him in the back. He didn't even lurch forward – he must be enormously strong.

Envy lifted her shirt, shoving the material up until it bunched against her collarbones, deliberately allowing one hand to toy with the strap of her bra. Winry's stomach wrenched in revulsion.

"No!" Winry shrieked, as though sheer volume would make him stop. "No! Get off! Get off!"

"Oh, I'll 'get off' all right," Envy sneered, menace laden in every syllable.

Intrusive fingers fiddled with the waistband of her pants, crawling over her skin. Winry shut her eyes and willed her mind away, trying to envision Ed as she silently chanted his name.

It was a fragile illusion, shattered easily when fingers too cold to be human slid into her pants and across her thighs. Tossing her head, Winry attempted to stifle her sobs, but was unable to hold in the tears that began to leak down her face. She flinched when Envy's tongue licked them away. There was nothing gentle or comforting in the gesture – it was dominating, rough and mocking.

She felt his weight lean onto her, hampering her desperate gasps for air and making pain explode in her lower back and wrists as they ground together. Lips and tongue moved across her neck, and Winry shuddered with disgust.

"No..."she whimpered, "No, no, no..."

"Yes," Envy taunted, "Yes."

His bite was so sudden and painful she screamed. A wet trickle, hot on her strangely chilled skin, told her he'd drawn blood. She could feel it running down her neck.

She felt him shift his weight, adjusting his hold so she couldn't pull away and he could tug her pants down. Winry took her chance and kicked viciously. She connected solidly with his chest, but the blow did so little she felt like a flea fighting a Great Dane.

Envy snarled in anger and yanked her legs apart, his knees intruding between them to keep them parted. Winry bucked, holding out little real hope of dislodging him, but desperate to do something to defend herself. Hard fingers bit into her hips, holding her still. Fear and dread churned deep in her gut and made her whole body shake. Her eyes were still slammed shut, her mind screaming in horror. This was really going to happen...

As he settled on top of her once more, Winry at last gave into despair, and tried to brace herself for the inevitable violation.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_AN: Didn't have the heart to leave you guys hanging for too long – here's the next chapter._

**oooooooo**

Winry's eyes remained closed, her nerves drawn as taut as violin strings. Envy's hands moved across her body and she squirmed, trying to sink into the mattress. Not this, not this...anything but this...

She heard the door open and cringed at the thought of someone walking into her degradation. But the intrusion seemed to have earned her a temporary respite – Envy had ceased his assault, presumably to give his attention to whoever had just walked in.

"Why Envy, I never knew you had such a malicious streak in you." The voice was female, and eerily familiar. Winry couldn't place it, but she was certain she'd heard it before. It wasn't enough to induce her to open her eyes, though.

"What the hell do you want?" Envy growled.

His fingers tightened, digging ruthlessly into the flesh of her thighs. Winry refused to wince.

"Master wants you to join us. We need to create the Red Water as quickly as possible."

_'Red Water?' _Winry thought, bewildered. Something about the way she said it made Winry imagine 'Red Water' with capital letters.

"Not now," Envy huffed, "I'll come when I'm done with Fullmetal's whore."

Again, Winry stiffened with indignation at the derogatory nickname. She still didn't open her eyes though. Not so much out of fear, more out of the feeling that she was defying him by refusing to acknowledge him.

"_Now_," the mysterious woman repeated.

A hissing sigh ghosted across her cheek. Winry clenched her jaw and held perfectly still, again for the feeling of petty resistance.

"Fine," Envy snarled, "Be there in a moment, just let me take care of her."

"Envy..."

"Just tying her up! No need to get so damn tetchy!"

"It seems to me as though she's already tied."

Envy's laugh was cruel, and Winry fought the urge to whimper in fear. "I think she needs to be a little more secure."

The door closed, and Winry's eyes flew open. Envy had leaned in so close their noses almost brushed, and terror paralysed Winry's limbs.

"You're smart," he continued, "I saw the pen nibs on the floor. I think you need a bit more than just immobilised hands to keep you in line."

He laid one hand on her stomach, holding her in place despite her frantic kicks, and with the other he tore one of the silken hangings from the bed.

Envy flipped her onto her stomach and she kicked again, craning her head over her shoulder to try to give her blows some aim, however skewed. More by luck than design, her heel caught his jaw, snapping his head to the side. Winry felt a brief flash of satisfaction – it was the first time any of her attacks had made any sort of impression.

Triumph morphed into alarm when Envy seized her ankle and began to twist it savagely. Winry smothered a yelp, her back arching as she fought not to scream.

"That wasn't very nice," Envy said mildly. His face was calm, but his eyes oozed malevolence as continued to ruthlessly grind the bones beneath his hand. "I should teach you some manners."

Winry bit into the pillow to stifle any cries she might let slip. She was grimly determined not to scream. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Another jerk brought tears of pain to her eyes – he had to be inches away from snapping her ankle!

To her surprise, his grip slackened. So great was her relief, that at first Winry didn't notice the cloth that whispered around her ankles, until Envy yanked it tight. She kicked again, but with her feet bound together, the movement was cumbersome and slow.

Envy wasn't finished. Winry felt him grab her feet and force them upward, towards her bound wrists. Another rip, and she could see two more silk hangings fall into Envy's hands. She tried to twist away from him, but his grip tightened remorselessly. She felt the fabric thread between her wrist and ankles, before the tell-tale shifting that told her a knot was being tied.

When he released her, Winry went limp. She wasn't an idiot – she was hog-tied, and in this position, she could do precious little to escape or injure him. She lay still, breathing heavily, trying to conserve her energy.

Then she stiffened as she felt the other hanging encircle her throat. Was he going to throttle her? Terror lending strength to her limbs, Winry thrashed like a hooked fish – wildly, desperately, and in the end, uselessly. The soft material felt like a band of steel across her windpipe, choking off her breath. Unable to put up much of a fight due to the way she was restrained, she craned her head back, trying to let the silk slip over her head. It didn't work – it felt as tight as a gallows rope.

Just as Winry's vision was beginning to blur, the horrific pressure across her throat relaxed. Coughing, gasping and swallowing reflexively, she managed to gather her wits enough to realise that he seemed to have secured the cloth to the cords binding her limbs somehow, she could feel the tension in it's length. She continued to take huge gulps of air, hardly believing she'd come inches away from strangulation.

But when Envy bent over her, she reacted. Winry felt a need to resist in some way, as though to prove even his near-throttling hadn't cowed her.

So as Envy's fingers came within reach, Winry bit him. Again.

This was different from her previous attack. Then, the intention had been to snap and release, to remove the hand across her mouth as swiftly as possible. Now, the intention was to bite and tear, to hurt and damage. Winry felt her incisors break the skin, her jaw beginning to ache as she tried to grind them in ever-deeper.

With a roar of rage and pain, Envy ripped his hand from between her teeth. Winry spat out the blood that had pooled in her mouth, feeling a burst of savage triumph at having finally caused him real damage.

But to her shock, with a small flash of light, the wound closed before her eyes. She saw Envy's hand descend, and there was no way to evade the blow.

The slap split her lip and made her ears ring. The entire side of her face went numb, then began to throb and burn. The blow half-stunned her, and Winry was barely aware when Envy's fingers gripped her jaw and forced her mouth open. Another tearing sound, and she felt silk jammed between her lips, the cloth knotted at the back of her head in a make-shift gag.

"There," Envy smirked, "That should keep those sharp little teeth under control."

Winry glared fiercely, the gag absorbing her insult until 'go to hell' sounded like, "Gro' 'oo eh!"

"Now don't worry," he chuckled, "I'll be back to finish what we started soon enough."

He patted her cheek, more like a slap, then left the room.

The adrenaline pounded through Winry's veins began to die, the fear it had held at bay coming back full force. The realisation of what so nearly happened to her made her shake, silent sobs shuddering through her body. She realised her nose was starting to run and instantly tried to repress her tears. With the gag in her mouth, if her nose ran, she wouldn't be able to breathe.

Winry tried to get herself under control , taking several deep breaths through her nose and firmly telling herself that hysterics wouldn't help. She had to get out of here, and there would be time for a long cry and a healthy mental breakdown as soon as she was free.

When Winry was calm, she reviewed her situation.

She was hog-tied on the bed, with her top pulled up and her pants tugged down. Envy hadn't even bothered to adjust her clothes, and Winry suspected that was partly the point. To leave her tied up, exposed and humiliated. She swallowed away the tightness in her throat.

She knew the ropes were solid, but tested them anyway, trying to stretch and wiggle her limbs.

The cloth around her throat suddenly pulled tight, cutting off her air. Choking at the unexpected attack, Winry began to flail from side to side, trying to loosen the stranglehold. It wasn't working, if anything, it seemed to make it tighter!

Winry forced herself to relax – panicking would simply expend the air in her lungs that much faster. But almost immediately clean, unhindered air began to fill her lungs. A few gasps got her breath back, and now that the struggle was over, she found herself more puzzled than scared.

What had happened?

Testing a hunch, Winry tried to unbend her knees – slowly, this time. She could feel the material around her neck tightening, and stopped immediately. That explained it. Envy had done something to her bonds, she didn't know what, but it ensured that whenever she shifted her limbs the ligature around her neck tightened like a noose.

_'Okay,'_ she thought to herself, trying to quell the urge to panic. _ 'Okay, you're definitely tied good and tight, but that doesn't mean you can't escape. Where there's a will, there's a way, right? And there's got to be a way out of this. Come on, think! Think, think, think!'_

But Winry's options were severely stunted. She couldn't move either arms or legs without risking choking herself, and the gag prevented her from calling for help. And Winry had a feeling she wouldn't get much assistance even if she could cry out. Not in this place.

Blood had crusted on her neck from Envy's earlier bite, drying into an itchy trail on her skin. She could taste more of the red fluid on her tongue, whether from her split lip or when she bit Envy, she couldn't be sure. It slipped around her mouth, leaving a coppery tinge in it's wake.

As though a light had suddenly clicked on in Winry's head, she saw a way of escape.

Her ankles were bound with silk, but her wrists were secured with rough rope. Rope that had already abraded her skin. Winry began to twist her hands again, deliberately scraping the overly-sensitive flesh against the gritty fibers. Pain shot up her arms, and she bit into the gag to help her tolerate it.

If she could make herself bleed, her wrists and hands might be slippery enough to wriggle out of her bonds. It wasn't much of an escape plan, but it was the only thing she could do.

The thought of Envy drove her on. The look in his eyes as he held her down...she never wanted to see that look again, she wanted to be out of the ropes and away from this place before he came back. In spite of her impressive show of courage, he had horrified her.

Winry breathed deeply, sheer willpower overcoming the pain as she continued to scrape her raw skin against the rope. _'Envy thinks this'll hold me? He's never taken on Winry Rockbell before!'_


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_AN: Haven't been able to say thanks to my reviewers lately, but please don't take it personally, I've been busy with this chapter (and the chapters after this one). This story is getting to the point where it's starting to write itself (I love it when they do that). Even if I don't answer, I really appreciate the reviews.  
_

**oooooooo**

"This is Rockbell Automail, Pinako speaking."

Ed grimaced. "Hi, Granny, it's me."

"Ed! What did you break this time!"

Ed wished he was only calling about a busted limb. He wished he was asking for a maintenance call, that he'd hang up the phone and Winry would appear in a few hours, seething that he'd broken her masterpiece, yet ready and willing to fix it again.

But he wasn't calling about a missing arm or leg. He was calling about a missing Winry, and the only way she was coming back was if they fought for her freedom.

"I didn't break anything...it's...it's about Winry."

There was instant silence on the other end. Whatever Pinako had heard in his voice, it had obviously told her this was serious.

"What happened to my granddaughter?"

"She..." Ed struggled for the words that could explain the situation. "Me and Al, we've...we've made enemies. And one of the worst...he...he kidnapped Winry." He took a deep breath. "I'm calling you because...well, we're going after them...and..."

Pinako interrupted, "Will you be coming back?"

"I don't know," Ed admitted. "These people-" he wasn't really sure if the homunculus could be called people, but it was all he had, "-they're very powerful. And it's not like we've got a lot of allies...but we have to try..."

A sombre pause. Then Pinako spoke again, her voice tight with anguish. "If allies are what you need...I've got someone you should speak to."

Ed was about to ask the name of this 'someone', but then he heard a voice he never thought he'd hear again.

"Ed?"

Hohenheim. His father.

Ed's first impulse was to hang up on the spot. How dare he? How dare he leave and never return, even for the funeral, and then say his name like he still cared about them?

He wanted nothing more than to shout accusations into the phone before he slammed the receiver back into it's cradle. Pinako thought they could be allies? He'd sworn he'd never ask that...that _bastard_...for help.

But Hohenheim was a talented alchemist, and the more people they had, the greater the chance of getting Winry back.

"Ed?"

Ed took another deep breath, trying to rein in his temper. For Winry...

"We have a problem..."

"Is there anything I can do?"

The concern in his voice nearly sent Ed over the edge. He shut his eyes and consciously relaxed his body, attempting to get himself under control.

_'Think of Winry,'_ he told himself. _'Beautiful, caring, always-enthusiastic-about-automail, Winry. Think about what the homunculi will do to her.'_

"Have you ever heard of the Philosopher?"

"Yes, he created the first Philosopher's Stone."

"Well, Al and I found out what he did with it. He passed it down his family line, in his blood..."

"So someone is carrying a potential Philosopher's Stone in their blood?"

"Does the name 'Rockbell' ring any bells?"

Hohenheim's stunned silence was enough answer for Ed.

"Look, the homunculi took Winry, and I..."

Ed's voice failed him. The vows he had kept for so many years were hard to break in an instant. But as he had twice before, he forced himself to think of Winry. If anyone was worth swallowing his pride for, it was her.

"We're launching an all-out war," he continued. "And I'm...I'm asking you to...come to Central...and..."

Ed swallowed past the bitter lump in his throat. "And help us."

There was a brief silence. Then, "I'll be on the next train."

**oooooooo**

"Izumi is coming here on the next train," Al said, "How...how did Granny Pinako take it?"

"Not too sure," Ed admitted, "Didn't talk to her for too long."

"Brother!"

"She put someone else on, okay!"

"Who?"

Ed swallowed. "Dad..."

"He's back in Risembool!" Al yelped.

"Not for much longer, he's coming here to help us."

"He is?" Al couldn't hide his bewilderment. "But didn't you once say you'd never ask him-?"

"Well, it looks like I broke that promise, doesn't it?" Ed snapped, his nerves already far too frayed to consider softening his words.

Al didn't answer. The younger brother was astonished that Ed had asked their father for help. It said volumes of how much he cared about Winry that he would even consider going to Hohenheim for assistance.

"Where's the Colonel?" Ed asked, Al's brooding silence unsettling him.

"He went to get the others...brother, do you really think we can win?"

Ed wanted to reassure his brother. He wanted to be able to say 'yes, we'll be fine', but he knew he couldn't. He didn't know if they could even survive the coming battle, let alone actually win.

"I don't know, Al. But we have to try."

_'We have to get Winry back'_, was what he did not add. It was strange – everyone was worried that the homunculus had the key to the Philosopher's Stone, but to Ed, that seemed only a secondary consideration next to the fact that they had Winry.

**oooooooo**

Her wrists were two foggy masses of pain, but Winry continued to saw them across the ropes. She didn't know if she was bleeding yet, and probably wouldn't know until the flow was heavy enough to trickle down her hands. The thought made her grimace a little. She was going to have to do some serious damage to herself to get loose, and she didn't relish the prospect.

As if she wasn't damaged enough already.

All Winry's limbs ached from the unnatural position she had been forced into. Her hands and ankles were beginning to go numb as the bonds interfered with her circulation, and her arms were started to cramp. The cloth in her mouth was turning sour – her gag reflex had asserted itself several times, and Winry was always forced to go still and take deep breaths through her nose until it subsided.

She didn't know how long she had been doing this, only that it obviously hadn't been long enough. Her hands didn't really feel connected to her body anymore, she couldn't tell if she'd even broken the skin yet. When she tried to roll the ropes off, they didn't feel any slipperier than usual, and all she got for her trouble was another swift throttling from the silk tied around her neck.

This was moving too slowly. She had no idea how long she had been fighting her bonds, but she knew Envy could walk through the door at any moment. Beginning to grow desperate, she jerked first one wrist then the other, frantic to cause enough injury to make herself bleed.

At that thought, Winry snorted, a sharp exhalation through her nostrils. To think she was actually _trying_ to injure herself...

Her thoughts broke off, her eyes widening. She could hear the distinct click of a key in a lock. Someone was unlocking the door to her room...Envy?

Tensing for a fight (though privately wondering how she could possibly put up much of a struggle in her current position), Winry watched as the door opened, the creak of the hinges ominously loud...


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Winry's eyes remained fixed on the door, even as the movements of her wrists grew more frantic. She didn't know who was entering, but she knew who it was likely to be. And if it was Envy, come back to complete his near-rape...Winry silently vowed that she would fight him tooth and nail until she was no longer able.

But it was not Envy who peered around the door. Her visitor was smaller, with black hair instead of green. And when they finally stepped into the room, Winry realised who it was.

"Wrath?" she gasped, or would have gasped, if it wasn't for the cloth in her mouth. The word actually came out sounding like, "Rah?"

Winry relaxed, but not by much. At least it wasn't Envy, but the last time she had seen Wrath, he had been fighting with Ed. What would he do to her?

"Winry?" Wrath's inhuman eyes widened as he took in her restraints and her state of undress.

Winry's cheeks burned as Wrath approached, having just remembered her own, rather humiliating, position. She felt the mattress dip as Wrath sat beside her, and reached for her bonds. At first, Winry tensed, wondering what he was doing as she felt something rocking against the material tied around her limbs. Then, to her surprise, her restraints went slack, and the gag fell loosely from her lips.

Wrath had cut her free.

Winry slowly pulled her arms and legs back into a more natural position, wincing at the pins and needles that signaled her limbs were alive. Every muscle ached and every joint felt swollen. Her lips felt sore and stretched, and she slowly moved her jaw from side to side, working the kinks out. She hastily pulled her clothes back into place.

But when she brought her hands in front of her, she was astonished by the deep lacerations that wrapped each wrist like a pair of bracelets, oozing blood. Apparently, her struggles had been more successful than she thought.

"Does that hurt?" Wrath asked, sounding genuinely curious.

He touched the ragged edge of the wound, but withdrew when Winry hissed in pain.

"I-I need to bandage it with something..." she muttered, her eyes landing on the silken remnants of her restraints.

Winry wrapped the silk around her wrist several times before attempting to tie it off. But it was difficult with only one hand, she couldn't hold the silk taut against her skin.

"I can do that, if you want...?" Wrath said, gesturing to her makeshift bandages.

"Uh...thanks..." Winry smiled, a little uncertainly.

Truth to tell, Winry was a little surprised at Wrath's gentle manner. Was this the same psychotic creature who'd attacked Ed? He was acting like the innocent, curious child he'd been when she first met him. Did he have split personalities or something?

He finished with her wrists, and Winry automatically smiled her gratitude. She examined her wrists – the rich purple of the hangings made it look as though she were making some sort of fashion statement.

"Mom says Envy was in here," Wrath said, looking concerned. "Did he hurt you?"

Winry shook her head. "No, but I'm not exactly eager to see him again."

"I don't like Envy either," Wrath confided.

Winry snorted, tossing her head. Wrath suddenly looked bewildered, and it took her a while to realise he was staring at her neck.

Her hand came up automatically, and encountered a dry, flaky substance on her skin. Then Winry remembered Envy's bite. She rubbed the dried blood away, grimacing as she touched the bite mark. Bites were bad – they could get infected very easily. But there was nothing could be used as a potential steriliser, so she'd have to take her chances.

"What happened?" Wrath asked, one finger half-extended, as though he wanted to touch the mark but then thought better of it.

"Don't worry about it," Winry told him, upturning the collar of her shirt and combing her hair over the injury to cover it. The thought of Envy's mark on her skin made her shudder.

"Where am I?" she asked, in an attempt to distract herself from the appalling memories the bite mark prompted.

"One of the bedrooms," Wrath supplied, "I'm supposed to stay with you. Don't know why though...maybe to stop Envy coming in again?"

_'To stop me escaping, more likely,'_ Winry thought bitterly, but she did not voice her conclusion aloud. Wrath seemed so oblivious it didn't seem fair to get mad at him.

"So," he said, sitting on the chair and swinging his legs, "What do you wanna do?"

Winry glanced at Wrath out of the corner of her eye. She just couldn't reconcile this apparently guileless persona to the one that had viciously attacked Ed and Al. She wondered if he had some sort of evil twin.

She let out a gusty sigh. It didn't matter. What mattered was that, however innocent her jailer seemed, she was under close watch. She wouldn't be escaping anytime soon. Her best hope was to wait until Wrath left, and resume her attempts to regain her freedom. Or she could wait until her captor's plans for her were in motion, then simply try to foul things up as much as possible. Both plans had their possibilities.

With a soft sigh, Winry resigned herself to a lengthly stay in her prison.

She became aware that Wrath was still awaiting her answer. Well, as long as she was here, she might as well enjoy herself.

Winry leaned back slightly, testing the springs in the mattress. A wicked idea popped into her mind. If she couldn't escape, she could ensure she was as frustrating a captive as possible by destroying some valuable property.

"Wrath, how do you feel about jumping on beds?"

**oooooooo **

Ed jiggled his foot impatiently as he sat at the table, waiting for the hours to miraculously melt away. Why couldn't Izumi and...and _him_...just appear?

"Brother, you should eat," Al said softly.

Ed glanced down at the table. He'd grabbed some food from the cafeteria on instinct, but now that he was actually sitting down at one of the tables, he found his appetite evaporating.

"I'm not hungry."

If Al had actually been able to breath, he would have choked. Ed, not hungry? Apparently fear could steal away even the most voracious appetite.

But Ed had to eat. So Al brought out the secret weapon.

"Brother, you need to eat to have any hope of bringing Winry back."

Ed stared at the meal in front of him, and wondered if Winry had eaten. Or was she was going hungry? Was she tired, or cold, or hurt?

Please, not hurt.

Ed's eyes darkened for a moment, then he reached for the simple meal in front of him.

**oooooooo**

Winry collapsed, exhausted, on the bed. She wriggled, feeling the springs give as though the whole mattress was about to cave in.

"I think we broke the bed," Wrath giggled, still jumping.

"No more," Winry gasped, holding up a hand. "I can't jump anymore."

"So, what are we going to do instead?"

Winry's eyes landed on the alchemy books in the shelf. "I got an idea, come on."

She tugged out a thick green-bound book and opened it. Incomprehensible arrays and writing sprawled before her, and she flipped it around so Wrath could see it.

"Is this important?"

Wrath shrugged.

With a certain amount of glee, Winry tore the page out. She folded it swiftly into a paper plane, and sent it flying across the room to hit the doorknob and drop to the floor.

"That was cool!" Wrath laughed. "How'd you do that?"

"You don't know how to make paper planes?"

He shook his head, and Winry felt a flash of sympathy. What kind of life did this kid have, that he didn't know about paper planes?

"Come here, I'll show you how to make them."

Winry admitted to a bit of perverse pleasure in destroying her captor's property, breaking the springs of the mattress, tearing out the pages of one book after another. She taught Wrath how to fold the pages, and soon both were constructing the fragile planes and inventing competitions. Contests like whose plane could stay aloft for longest, whose went the furthest, and whose was the fastest. Winry showed Wrath how you could differ the folding to suit a plane for a specific purpose.

When she was younger, Winry learned some origami. And for lack of anything better to do, she passed it on to Wrath, showing him how to make fish, swans, grasshoppers, even birds that could fly like the planes. He was particularly interested in the frogs that jumped when you pressed their back legs.

Meanwhile, whenever Winry had a hand free, she slid it under the bed and resumed trying to work a spring loose. The spring had snapped in two when she and Wrath jumped on the bed, and the edge was as sharp as a knife. It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was better than nothing.

Winry winced when the softened metal finally snapped with a resounding ping.

"What was that?" Wrath asked

"Beats me," Winry shrugged, turning away as she hastily tucked the sharp coil in the waistband of her pants.

She reached for another book, ready to resume her origami and distract Wrath, when she noticed a notebook tucked between two thick volumes. She pulled it out, and a pen fell from the spine. The book was small, about the size and width of a thin instruction manual. Succumbing to curiosity, Winry opened it, flicking through the scribblings.

Then she stopped. She might not know much about alchemy, but she knew enough to recognise that notebook in her hands was packed with information on the Philosopher's Stone.

Her first thought was Ed. He could use this, and she was pretty sure that something like this couldn't be found in the library.

Acting quickly, Winry stuffed the notebook up her shirt, hooking it into the edge of her bra to hold it against her stomach. It was lucky it was so thin, the book curved around her body and didn't even make an indent in her clothes. It was almost invisible, and if no one noticed, she could give it to Ed when she got out of here.

"What are you doing?" Wrath asked, innocently inquiring.

"I...um..." Winry's eyes cast around wildly, and landed on the pen that had fallen from the notebook. "I found a pen!"

She showed it to Wrath.

"Now we can draw on them!" he beamed, brandishing his newly-constructed dog.

Winry smiled. His enthusiasm was contagious. "Or we can sketch."

She tore a title page from one of the books – blank except for a brief sentence in the middle – and snatched the ink pot from the desk.

"Don't move," she grinned, beginning to sketch the young homunculus opposite her.

As a mechanic, and as one who designed her own work, Winry had become good at sketching by necessity. It wasn't much of a leap to go from drawing bolts and wiring to drawing skin and hair. She'd managed to sketch down to Wrath's waist before she realised he was becoming fidgety, so she left it as a head and torso inking.

"Check this out." Winry handed the paper to Wrath, who seemed delighted.

"That's good. Let me draw you?" he asked, freshly inked pen poised over the paper.

Winry arranged herself as neatly as she could. "Go right ahead."

While trying to hold herself as still as possible, her mind spun away, planning her escape. She had a sharp spring (though these creatures seemed to be able to heal their injuries), she had a notebook (which she had to keep hidden), and...

And she was hungry! How long had it been since she had eaten, anyway? Her stomach was starting to develop that hollow, empty-sack feeling, and she could feel it rumbling, even if she couldn't hear it yet.

"Done!" Wrath crowed, handing over his drawing.

Taking the sketch, Winry was surprised at how accurate it was. Wrath had sketched her like she had him, from the waist up, the small inking in the opposite corner from hers. It wasn't as good as her drawing of him, but it was far from childish.

"This is good," Winry grinned, admiring it. "Is this the first time you tried sketching someone?"

Wrath nodded.

"You've got talent."

Wrath beamed, and continued his origami. Winry idly fiddled with the pen, drawing random lines across the paper as she mused on her escape.

She came to herself when she realised what she had written.

She had scribbled out the title, and written just underneath it; _What I'm Going To Do When I Get Out Of Here._

Checking to make sure Wrath wasn't watching, Winry gave into the impulse to write something.

_1) Give the book to Ed._

That would be first, swiftly followed by;

_2) Buy a watch._

That way, if she was ever kidnapped again, she'd at least know what time it was.

Getting into the rhythm, Winry began to write more and more, even things she was fairly sure she would never do.

_3) Explain to Envy that I never accepted money for sleeping with Ed (never slept with him, period), and thus, cannot be called his whore._

_4) Demolish the expensive and tacky room I am currently being kept in._

_5) Learn self-defense (besides the wrench-throwing)._

_6) Kick whatever bastard invented the hog-tie._

_7) Learn lock picking (just in case this ever happens again)._

_8) Have a big party to celebrate my escape. Possibly with alcohol, I've always wanted to try some._

Winry paused, looking over her list and getting slightly depressed. What if she never got out?

Then she gave herself a firm mental shake. She couldn't think like that, she couldn't...

Still, the final entries were written in a slightly more sombre mood.

_9) Give Den a big hug._

_10) Tell Granny I love her._

_11) Give Al a big hug._

_12) Give Ed-_

Winry halted. Give Ed what? Deciding this was her list, and no one else ever had to see it – it could remain her secret until her dying day – Winry scribbled that entry out and wrote something else instead.

_12) Tell Ed I love him._

**oooooooo**

_AN: In the anime, it seemed that Lust and Wrath were the homunculi most capable of redemption. At times, Wrath acted like the child he appeared to be, and I decided to have my story reflect this._


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_AN: One nasty word in this chapter. Should be okay, though._

**oooooooo**

"Is there any paper left?" Wrath asked, looking around the room, flipping the covers of the now-empty books.

"Don't think so," Winry said, painfully aware of the folded square in her pocket. Her list, tucked carefully away. Already, she felt a blush coming on at the thought of it's contents, especially the last one. Maybe she could tear it up later...after all, no one had to know...

The door slammed open, and both of the room's occupants jumped. Winry blanched when she realised who had just entered.

Envy.

More specifically, it was Envy carrying a tray of what looked like food. Winry's stomach chose that precise moment to remind her she hadn't eaten since breakfast, which was...she didn't know how long ago.

"Get out of here!" Envy snarled at Wrath as he laid the tray on the desk.

Wrath started to rise, and Winry could see he was frightened of Envy. "What are you going to do to her?"

Envy grinned, giving Winry a leer that sent a chill through her body. "You're a little too young to know."

"No! She's nice, don't-"

Envy hit Wrath savagely, nearly knocking him off his feet.

"Hey!" Winry yelled, incensed at Envy's attack. Sure, Wrath was technically one of her captors, but he had managed to endear himself to her in the short time they had spent together, and she wasn't about to stand by and calmly let him get roughed up.

"Leave him alone!" she bellowed, kicking Envy in the shin for good measure.

Feeling the familiar adrenaline beginning to pour through her veins, Winry managed to land a solid punch to the side of Envy's head before he spun around. Another open-palmed slap brought tears to her eyes and sent her to her knees.

"Get out of here, NOW!" Without even glancing at him, Envy casually threw Wrath away from them.

The younger homunculus struck the wall, and fell heavily to the floor. He regained his feet quickly, and Winry could have sworn he looked worried about her. And scared.

"It's okay," she gasped, tasting blood on her tongue. Had her lips split again? Not wanting Wrath to be struck again for her sake, Winry managed to say, "Go, I'll be fine."

Wrath looked torn, but still left.

A vicious yank on her hair brought her head around, and Winry flinched at how close Envy was. Not again...

Winry licked her lips nervously, and fought the urge to try and push him away. She titled her chin, ignoring the answering prickle in her scalp, and regarded him with what she hoped were emotionless eyes. Envy's hand brushed her neck, and Winry was unable to keep herself from swallowing – a nervous reflex – beneath his fingers.

Envy's leer increased in intensity. "Unfortunately, I'm here to feed you, not fuck you."

Winry's muscles tightened at Envy's blunt words. But he stepped away, to her immense relief. Whenever he encroached upon her personal space, she felt as though someone were slowly squeezing the breath from her chest.

"Wrath cut you free, I suppose?" the homunculus mused, glancing briefly at her silk-bandaged wrists.

Winry pressed her lips together, refusing to say anything.

"I don't suppose it matters," he shrugged. "You have to eat, and it will be easier with your hands free."

Alarm bells began to go off in Winry's head. This was the guy who'd hog-tied her on the bed, saying it didn't matter that she'd been cut free? He'd seemed so eager to see her restrained only hours before, why the apparent indifference now?

He had said it would be easier for her to eat if she was unbound. Why would he care?

Unless...the food was going to incapacitate her far more efficiently than ropes.

Were they trying to drug her? Winry examined the possibility. They hadn't fed her all day, letting her appetite build, and now they were giving her food? A little suspicious, but admittedly nothing to get terribly worked up about. They were her kidnappers – they wanted her alive, not comfortable.

Winry went to the desk, assessing the meal in front of her. A glass of water, salt and pepper shakers and a metal spoon beside a bowl of soup.

Her wariness rose a notch. Soup was an ideal meal to slip someone drugs, it was primarily a liquid, and could dissolve anything from painkillers to tranquilizers. Winry knew – she and Granny sometimes used soup to administer painkillers after automail surgery.

Conscious of Envy's eyes on her, she knew she couldn't reveal any of her suspicions. Taking a spoonful of soup, Winry discretely inhaled it's scent under the guise of blowing on it to cool it. It smelled vaguely spicy.

That settled it. Spices could cover a lot of aromas and flavours, including the slightly bitter ones bestowed by foreign chemicals.

Winry couldn't be certain her food was drugged, but the possibility was too strong to ignore.

But what could she do?

If she refused to eat it, she wouldn't put it past Envy to hold her down and shove it down her throat. With him in the room, she couldn't tip the bowl out in the trash...so how could she prevent this?

Her eyes landed on the glass of water and the seasonings, and inspiration struck. She might not be able to stop the drugging, but she might be able to avoid the worst of the affects.

Winry bent to the soup, eating greedily. She consumed it as swiftly as she could, bolting it down within minutes.

"Were we starving you?" Envy sneered, his voice laden with false sympathy.

Winry glared. He smirked sardonically and left, and Winry heard a key turn in the lock.

He hadn't bothered to tie her up again. More evidence that he expected the soup to lay her out and make her more manageable.

As soon as the door was closed, Winry acted. Grabbing the salt shaker, she let loose a heavy rain of white crystals into her water glass. Then, with a grimace, she raised the glass to her lips and downed the briny water in several swift gulps.

Then she waited. Winry knew that ingesting salt water caused vomiting, and if she brought the soup up again as soon as possible, there was a chance the drug would be carried with it. Some of the drug would have already been absorbed, but if she expelled the rest, she could probably avoid the worst of the affects.

She didn't have to wait long. Winry knocked the book from the trash can and bent over it, retching miserably. Her stomach, so recently filled, protested the expulsion with agonising spasms that brought her to her knees.

When she was finished, the ache in her abdomen and the disgusting taste in her mouth almost made her regret it. But she had to avoid any possibility of drugs – ropes could be dealt with, drugs were different.

Slamming the book back on top of the trash can, Winry staggered to the bed, leaning against it as she recovered.

She became aware that she was alone in the room, as she hadn't been for who knew how long. This was her chance!

Winry pulled the spring out, and jammed the blunter end in the lock. She knew almost nothing about lock picking, but figured it wouldn't hurt to try. After all, it wasn't like she could break the door down...

Or could she? Winry eyed the hinges, and almost grinned when she realised they were on her side of the door. And they were pin-and-barrel hinges – even better!

She wriggled the end of the coil under the tip of the hinge and began trying to lever it free. If she could get the pins out, the door would be hanging by the lock alone, and it wouldn't take much force to break it down.

But after several minutes of working at the hinges, Winry was alarmed to realise her movements were becoming sluggish. Her limbs were beginning to feel heavy, and she knew the drug was starting to kick in.

And it descended fast. Like a sudden blow to the head, her vision became spotty, and she only just managed to slip the spring into her sleeve and lurch to the bed. She lay on the creaking mattress, feeling lassitude swamp her body and darkness hover at the edge of her vision.

If this was the diluted affects of the drug, what was it meant to do at full strength?

Winry had a brief moment to acknowledge that she was in a lot of trouble, then blackness condensed around her in a soundless rush.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_AN: Apologies for the lateness of this chapter, but school has started once again._

**oooooooo **

Winry made a slow, foggy journey into awareness. She realised she was being carried in someone's arms, but she didn't open her eyes. She needed them to think she was still drugged.

And she wasn't so sure the drugs had surrendered the struggle either. Her thoughts were still hazy, and she still felt as though her body was made of lead.

She lay still, wondering who held her. The mystery was solved when they spoke.

"Where do you want her?"

It was Envy. Winry repressed the urge to shudder, suddenly painfully aware of the places their flesh made contact.

"Just on the table, Envy."

A woman. Her voice sounded cold and commanding.

Winry didn't move as she was laid on a hard wooden surface, arms neatly by her side and legs straightened. She controlled any urge to twitch or shift, though it was hard when the sole of her foot began to itch. She could still feel the spring tucked into her sleeve, and the book was still hidden under her shirt. Small mercies, at least.

She could hear Envy talking again, and quickly strained her ears to hear his conversation with the woman.

"So, is this happening or what?"

"Patience, Envy. The circle still needs to be drawn, as Wrath would have difficulty creating the Philosopher's Stone without a circle."

"So why is she here?"

"I prefer all the ingredients in one place. The drugs should keep her from becoming a nuisance, and they are sure to last until we need her blood. Probably beyond. Don't worry, she'll be out for hours."

Envy made a noncommittal sound, the voices diminishing as they walked away, but Winry barely heard anything else. They needed her _blood_? It sounded like one of those bad ghost stories that were told around a campfire.

They needed her blood...but why? Wasn't anyone's blood as good as another's? Why her, specifically? At least, Winry assumed it was her they were after – they'd gone to a lot of trouble to kidnap her anyway.

She considered leaping up from the table and running for dear life, but she felt another surge of lassitude that nearly sent her into unconsciousness again. Apparently whatever they had given her was still lurking in her system, ready to drag her back to oblivion. And it wasn't like she could jump around to stave off the unnatural exhaustion.

Winry cursed silently. Faking unconsciousness was all very well when you were in perfect health. It became rather difficult when you'd been drugged and hit on the head several times.

Still, at least the conversation explained why the drug was so strong, and had acted so quickly. It was meant to lay her out for hours, and if she hadn't puked up most of it she'd probably still be out.

Winry nearly jumped when she felt fingers brush her thigh, stroking the skin through the fabric of her pants. She recognised those fingers – Envy was back.

But he wouldn't...not while she was unconscious...would he?

When she felt his hands on her knees, slowly pushing her legs apart, Winry had to bite her tongue to suppress the urge to scream. It was the hardest thing she had ever had to do; doing nothing, keeping her body limp and pliant as Envy began stroking her inner thighs. At least he hadn't removed her pants.

She heard him shift, and some deeply-ingrained instinct told her that he was on the table beside her, looming over her. One hand left her legs and brushed through her hair, running over her cheek and neck.

Winry was surprised he still thought she was unconscious. Her heart was hammering against her ribs like a caged bird, she was sure he could feel it. It was a struggle to keep her muscles relaxed, her breathing even.

When his hand cupped her breast, she came dangerously close to jerking away. She couldn't take this...

_'Keep still,'_ she coached herself. _'Keep still and don't move and he might go away.'_

Somehow, she knew 'might' wasn't going to cut it.

Winry felt Envy's breath caress her face before he ran his tongue across the line of her jaw, leaving a slimy trail on her skin. Revulsion rose in Winry like a bitter tide as the hand resting on her breast flexed, squeezing the flesh painfully. Then the hand on her thigh rose, higher and higher, until it pressed against...

That was it. Winry didn't care about her blowing her cover anymore, she would not lie here and let herself be molested! She was about to rear up and kick him when a shout rang through the room.

"ENVY!"

The homunculus was tackled off of her, and Winry – fake drugged sleep still believable – remained limp, eyes closed.

"What were you doing?"

Winry recognized that voice. _'Wrath,'_ she thought, _'If I wasn't pretending to be unconscious right now, I could kiss you!'_

"You're begging for some pain, kid," she heard Envy growl.

She was considering blowing her cover anyway to help Wrath, when another voice drifted to her ears.

"Envy, you're wanted by Master."

It was the scarily-familiar woman again. Winry wanted to open her eyes and see who she was, but didn't dare. She found herself liking whoever it was, though – after all, they'd called Envy away twice now, it was hard not to like them.

She heard Envy cursing viciously for several minutes before he stomped away. Silence reigned, and for several minutes, Winry wondered if she had been left alone.

Then she felt someone levering themselves up on the table again, sitting beside her head. She felt a brief frission of fear, until they spoke.

"It's alright, Winry, he's gone now."

Of course, Wrath hadn't left yet.

"I'm not leaving, I'm going to make sure he doesn't come back again."

Winry felt Wrath's hand move through her hair, stroking it gently. Envy had done the same thing, but this time the gesture had no malice behind it, only comfort. Winry suddenly wanted to cry. Any encounter with Envy always left her feeling dirty and defiled, and while callousness would have hardened her heart, Wrath's gentleness just made her want to break down in tears.

But she couldn't. She didn't dare reveal that the drugs hadn't worked to full capacity, even to Wrath. And if she cried, the tear tracks on her face would be noticed. So she concentrated on breathing deeply and evenly, suppressing any and all urges to burst out sobbing.

She nearly lost it when she felt Wrath slip his hand in hers, squeezing lightly. Did he know she was awake? Winry decided he probably didn't – he would have been asking her to make paper planes or something if he thought she was awake – he was just acting as though she could hear him, like people did when someone was in a coma.

He squeezed her hand again, and Winry stilled the desire to squeeze back. It was hard, she wanted to sit up and give him a huge hug.

"I like your hair, Winry," she heard Wrath say. "It's so soft...and it's a really nice colour, too. We once robbed a gold train, and your hair looks just like the gold did in the moonlight."

Winry tried to suppress the reflex blush at such a compliment. It was delivered with a child's honest sincerity, which made it all the more flattering. But if she blushed...then, as the saying went, the jig was up.

Fortunately, Wrath didn't speak again, merely sat beside her, holding her hand and stroking her hair.

**oooooooo**

Ed remained in his seat, seething quietly. He may have to sit next to his father at their impromptu council of war, but he didn't have to like it!

"We have determined that the Fuhrer is probably involved," Roy was saying, "Which means we can trust no one else in the military."

Izumi snorted at that, her disdain for the military clear. But she didn't comment beyond that – in fact, the whole room was strangely devoid of arguments or provocative remarks. It was as though everyone had called an uneasy truce, in lieu of the seriousness of the situation.

"Worst case scenario, is that the homunculus already have the Philosopher's Stone," Roy continued, "And after all this time, it's extremely likely. The only point up for debate is the fate of Miss Rockbell."

"She isn't dead!" Ed hissed.

"What do you base that on, Fullmetal?" Roy raised an eyebrow.

Ed swallowed, stammering slightly as he searched for words. The truth was, he didn't know what he based it on – just some small, naïve part of him that kept screaming that if Winry was dead, he'd know...somehow.

"She'll be alive," Hohenheim cut in.

Everyone turned to stare at him.

"What makes you say that?" Izumi asked.

"You know that Dante is the master of the homunculus, correct?"

A few scattered nods.

"Dante and I...have a certain history together."

"And this would be...?" Ed prompted.

"We created the Philosopher's Stone, over four hundred years ago."

Seemingly unaware of the stunned silence around him, Hohenheim continued. "Dante will betray the homunculi – she doesn't want to make them human, she wants to continue her unnatural life. To exist for so long...our bodies can't take the strain, so we have to take the bodies of others. But the soul erodes with each transfer, and each new body begins to decay faster."

Hohenheim rolled up his sleeve, revealing a patch of skin that was blackened and crumbling, the veins standing out like pale ropes.

"So that's why Winry is still alive. She's a prime candidate for a new soul transfer, just how Dante prefers them, beautiful, young women. And Winry's blood contains so much alchemical energy, it may be able to resist the inevitable decay."

"So Winry's...immortal?" Al ventured, but Hohenheim shook his head.

"No, but her body could live out a natural lifespan before it succumbed to the decay. Dante will only kill Winry as an absolute last resort, as not only does she want to inhabit her body, but she needs living blood."

"Living blood?" Roy inquired.

"Offering a dead body to create the Philosopher's Stone does nothing. Winry's blood is potent because it contains the energy released just as those people died. But if she were dead herself, there is nothing to hold the energy in the blood, and it becomes useless."

"So Winry needs to be alive when they draw blood from her," Riza confirmed.

"Instead of debating about whether she's alive or not and what Dante needs, how about we work on getting Winry back?" Ed gritted out.

Roy picked up his previous thread. "As far as we know, there are only six homunculi, plus Dante, so we outnumber them."

That was true. Ed, Al, Hohenheim, Izumi, Sieg (her husband), Armstrong, Roy,Riza, Falman, Breda, Havoc, and Fuery gave their force a grand total of twelve.

"But," Roy continued. "We have only six alchemists, which may pose some problems."

"Not necessarily," Hohenheim cut in. "Homunculi aren't immortal in the strictest sense of the word. That old saying that a cat has nine lives? Something similar applies to the homunculi – they can only be 'killed' a certain number of times before it's permanent. Almost like a set number of deaths."

Roy blinked, slightly surprised. Though the knowledge that homunculi could be killed by someone besides an alchemist was reassuring. He'd been concerned about Riza...and the others,of course. But mostly Riza.

He sneaked a glance at her out of the corner of his eye. She was sitting beside him, cleaning her guns, her mouth set in a grim line. But she had every right to be grim – this would not be any ordinary battle, this was one that they might not survive, and one that had very high stakes.

He realised he was staring and tried to drag his mind back to the task at hand.

"So, are we ready to go?"

Battle was about to be joined.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_AN: Another rough chapter. Not really for what goes on, but for some verbal descriptions._

**oooooooo**

"Where the hell are they?" Ed snarled under his breath.

They had found the hidden elevator in the Fuhrer's office, greasy bootprints on either side of the door a clear indication that Winry had fought back. The wrench lying behind the couch told just how desperate that struggle had been.

The entire group had emerged in the upper halls of some kind of amphitheater, or dance hall. They were trying to be quiet, to find the homunculi before they were found themselves. So far, they were having no success...

Until voices drifted from below them.

"Wrath, are you ready to perform the transmutation?"

"Will...will it hurt her?"

"Of course not."

Ed was the first to move, peering into the sprawling hall below them. What he saw sent his stomach plummeting.

The homunculi were gathered around an enormous transmutation circle, with a large bowl of what Ed recognised as Red Water in the middle. To one side, was Winry, sprawled on a table, apparently unconscious. Her feet were bare, and purple fabric was wrapped around her wrists.

What the hell were they doing to her?

"We need to get down there, now!" he hissed.

"No arguments there," Mustang agreed. "As for getting down there-"

But Izumi was several steps ahead of him. She clapped her hands, transmuting the floor beneath them, warping it into a gentle slope to the floor below it.

"Get going!" she bellowed, beginning to run down her makeshift ramp.

No one hesitated in obeying – the homunculi were already massing.

Lust's claws separated Izumi and Seig, the alchemist and her husband joining to launch a double assault on the homunculus attacking them. Pride lunged for Roy, sword drawn, and the Flame alchemist barely managed to sidestep in time. Gluttony tried to assist Lust, but Armstrong intervened, dealing a blow that sent the large homunculus reeling, even with his considerable weight. Sloth's snaking liquid arms snagged Havoc, and had to be driven back by a hail of bullets from Riza's gun. As though of one mind, she, Havoc, Fuery, Breda and Falman rushed Sloth, trying to bring her down with sheer force of numbers instead of alchemy. Ed tried to go to Winry, but Envy's fist lunged in front of him, forcing him to fight or risk a cracked skull. Wrath launched himself from the table, aiming at Ed's unprotected back, but Al stepped between them.

Chaos didn't even begin to describe it.

Hohenheim advanced on the woman standing in the center of the large hall, apparently unconcerned at the battle raging around her.

"Hello, Hohenheim, just in time to witness the making of the new Philosopher's Stone."

"Not this time, Dante," Hohenheim said, his voice flat.

"Why not?" she smirked, "You certainly can't stop me."

She didn't even have to clap her hands. As a hammer blow of pure alchemical force rushed towards him, Hohenheim raised his hands to block it.

**oooooooo**

Winry's heart jumped as she heard a battle raging close by...and was that Ed's voice?

She risked opening her eyes, just a little, the lids parted by the merest slit.

And she nearly screamed in joy. They'd come! They were here to get her out of this awful place! Winry would have leapt from the table, but the drug surged up again, and it became impossible to move – she struggled just to remain conscious.

She could dimly hear Wrath shrieking like a banshee, fighting Al with all the ferocity of a wildcat. More evidence for that split-personality thing. It just wasn't natural how he could switch from being sweet and comforting to savage and merciless so quickly.

As darkness hovered at the edge of her vision, Winry fought desperately not to pass out.

**oooooooo**

"So good of you to drop by, pipsqueak," Envy taunted.

A slight tightening of Ed's lips was the only sign that he had heard the insult. The alchemist was uncharacteristically silent about the jab at his height, completely focused on the fight.

Envy narrowed his eyes. Ed wasn't reacting the way he'd hoped – maybe he'd have to go farther to get the reaction he desired...

For several moments, the battle was silent as the homunculus pondered what he could throw at Ed that would enrage the alchemist. Then he saw Ed's eyes dart towards Winry for a split second, and he knew.

"You must want your little mechanic back something fierce, huh? I don't blame you, that is one delectable ride," Envy smirked.

Ed said nothing. He was so absorbed in the fight the words barely registered. And when they did, he simply dismissed them, chalking them up to Envy's malicious nature.

"Speaking from experience, of course. While your little team was running around like headless chickens, did you ever wonder what was happening to Winry? What I was doing with her?"

Ed snorted, "Nice try, Envy. Winry would never do anything with you."

Envy barely managed to contain a shout of joy – Ed was playing right into his hands. "True, '_with_ her' isn't really an apt description. '_To_ her' fits better. I spent hours with her, Fullmetal. _Hours_. She'd never tell you – ashamed, probably, of everything I did to her. Of everything I _made_ her do."

Ed's mouth went dry. Every instinct he possessed was telling him that this was nothing good. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You don't know? I thought it was obvious...I fucked her, Fullmetal. I fucked your pretty little mechanic."

Every one of Ed's muscles snapped tight, his mind screaming in horror, frantically rejecting the thought that Winry had been raped.

_'He's lying! He's just trying to screw with your head!'_ he berated himself. _'Snap out of it!'_

Envy could see Ed trying to will himself into numbness, so he continued goading him. "Don't worry, I didn't take her like this-" his head flicked in the direction of Winry's prone form, "I don't like them drugged. She was awake the whole time. Her eyes are stunning, aren't they? Like the summer sky...and so expressive. When I was on top of her...they turned the colour of a frozen river, but when I was actually _in _her...they were like amethysts, so dark blue they were practically purple."

_'I'm not listening!'_ Ed coached himself, feeling his stomach work itself into a thousand knots. _'He's lying, it's not true!'_

"She was so feisty, so defiant...she fought me every inch of the way, but that just made it all the sweeter. The things I did to her, Fullmetal...you can't imagine. I've lived for centuries, so believe me, when I say I tried everything with her...I do mean _everything_. Over and over, again and again. I was only planning on doing her once, but I just couldn't help myself. She was like strawberries and cream...perfect...every last _inch_ of her."

Ed's chest felt so tight it was a wonder he could breathe. He was trying to keep his mind on the fight, but it was becoming more and more difficult. He kept telling himself that Envy was simply trying to push his buttons...but he couldn't block out the snide voice drilling into his brain, painting horrendous images in it's wake.

"Her skin was so soft...that surprised me, you know, considering she's a mechanic and all. And it was so pale, like milk cream. All of her was beautiful; slender legs, tiny waist, full breasts..."

Ed gritted his teeth, blind rage rising in him as Envy described Winry's body intimately. _'This can't be true, it can't be...please, don't let it be true...'_

"She cried, you know? When she realised she wasn't strong enough to push me away...just turned her head and closed her eyes, and these little tears began to trickle down her cheeks. That felt so good – her despair, her helplessness..."

Envy was pleased to note Ed's breath coming in sharp gulps, and grinned at the way the alchemist's hands trembled. He nearly laughed at the deep anguish in Ed's eyes.

Ed, for his part, was desperately trying to ignore what Envy was saying. A good imagination was essential in an alchemist, but now Ed was cursing it, cursing the agonising visions that it conjured.

"She begged too. Begged me."

Then, horrifyingly, when Envy's mouth opened, it was Winry's voice that issued forth. Winry's voice, sounding terrified, hurt and choked with tears. "Please, stop! Oh, no, don't...please, please, leave me alone!"

No matter how much Ed told himself that this had never happened, those words, in that voice, tore at his very soul.

"Just to prove I'm telling the truth," Envy smirked, "I'll tell you a few..._things_...about your little mechanic. Well, she's definitely a natural blonde. She has a scar, right here-" Envy touched the rise of his hip, his finger resting on the tip of the bone. "Oh, and I almost forgot...I bit her, just about here-" he smoothed his hand over the side of his neck. "The sight of blood on her skin...the sound of her screams...beautiful..."

"Shut up!" Ed hissed, unable to restrain himself any longer. It might be a lie, but it still made him sick to hear it. Red dots of rage were exploding behind his eyes. "_Just shut up!_"

"Oh, but I haven't told you the best part," Envy waited for perhaps a few seconds, then dropped his carefully-contrived bombshell. "She screamed for you, Fullmetal. While I was fucking her, she was screaming for you to come and save her."

And that was all it took. Those words single-handedly managed to shred Ed's heart apart as nothing else ever could. The idea that Winry had screamed for his help as she was being raped...

For a split second, Ed wilted, almost collapsing to the floor at the despair that washed through his body. But it was quickly consumed by white-hot anger.

And, as Envy had hoped he would, Ed's rage and anguish over came all logical thought. He rushed wildly, savagely.

Blindly.

Envy smirked, and waited for his opening.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_AN: Bear with me on this chapter. Don't stop reading this story because of the ending, hang in there and you shall be rewarded, I promise._

**oooooooo**

Envy simply stepped aside as Ed rushed him, casually swatting at the alchemist as he passed. The force sent Ed pitching forwards, and he automatically fell into a controlled tumble, righting himself once more.

But the sudden blow had jolted him back to his senses, the red film leaving his eyes. Ed's rage did not diminish, but it was a cold, deadly thing now, not the wild tempest it had just been. He was going to kill Envy, he knew that, it was just a question of how long it would take.

Ed dodged Envy's next swing, his automail blade carving deeply into Envy's chest. The homunculus retched, spitting red stones onto the floor.

"What's the matter?" Envy chuckled, "Pissed that I got a taste of something you didn't?"

Ed fought desperately to shove his blinding rage away. He couldn't lose control now...

He nearly pitched over when Armstrong – directing a blow at Gluttony – missed and smashed his fist into the floor instead, creating a cavernous pit. Ed skipped away from it, cursing. The pit looked near bottomless, what if he stumbled?

But on the other hand, if he threw Envy down...Ed suspected it would be a very long time before the homunculus managed to drag himself up again.

Eyes narrowing, Ed began to circle Envy, looking for his opportunity...

**oooooooo**

"Why the hell are you here, can't you just leave us alone?" Wrath snarled, flipping out of the way of Al's fist.

He slammed his hand into the floor, and a sharp spike rose from it, narrowly missing Al's armoured body.

"We're not going to let you hurt Winry!" Al yelled, managing to land a blow that sent the young homunculus staggering backwards.

"We're not going to hurt her!" Wrath snapped, seeming incensed at the very thought.

And it was that defensiveness that made Al pause. Wasn't it Wrath who had asked earlier if the transmutation was going to hurt Winry?

Al thought fast. It was likely Wrath hadn't been well treated by the homunculi, but Winry had offered him nothing but kindness. If he could persuade Wrath that the homunculi meant to harm Winry...there was a chance, slim but there, that he would choose Winry above all others.

"But they _are_ going to hurt her," he said, his voice far softer. "Didn't you wonder why they wanted Winry? They want her blood – and they're going to have to hurt her to get it."

"You're lying!" Wrath yelled, but for a heartbeat, he had looked shaken.

Al was about to try again, when he felt _something_, something cold and watery slide inside his armour. He yelped at the sensation – it always felt as though someone were sliding inside his body – and tried to leap away. But the ribbon of water followed him, slipping dangerously close to his seal...

"Brother!"

"Nobody move!" Sloth's voice rang through the hall, even over the noise of the battle. "Not one inch or I'll erase the bloodseal!"

Every human in the room (save Dante) ground to a halt. Sloth had slipped one watery arm in the gap between Al's head and the rest of his body, and a single flick of her fingers could wipe the seal away entirely.

"That's better," Sloth said primly. "The transmutation is going to be completed, and if any of you interfere, I'll send Alphonse Elric's soul back to the Gate."

"Mother..." Al whimpered.

"I'm not your mother, you little fool!"

"Marvelous, Sloth," Dante smiled, stepping carefully around the gaping hole in the floor, walking towards Winry.

"Don't touch her!" Ed roared, about to take a step forwards, but Sloth deliberately sloshed her liquid arm and he ceased moving.

Dante approached the table, and drew a knife from within her dress.

"You ARE going to hurt her!" Wrath screamed, leaping across the pit in one smooth motion.

As the other homunculus watched, apparently incredulous, Wrath seized Dante's wrist, and tried to wrest the knife from her grasp. Unnoticed, Izumi's eyes lit up, wondering if there really was some good left in the creature her child had become.

"Get away!" Dante snarled, another blast of alchemical power knocking Wrath away. "I'm not going to kill her, you stupid child, I need her _living_ blood!"

**oooooooo**

Winry watched Dante's approach through slitted eyes. The glittering dagger made her stomach twist, but the fingers of her left hand curled, touching the spring hidden inside her sleeve. She hoped the drug wouldn't impede her too badly, and if this crazy plan worked...

As Dante began to heft the knife, Winry sprang up from the table, catching her unawares. Her shock made it easy for Winry to twist the dagger from her hand, yanking the spring from her sleeve in the same moment. A few quick steps, and Winry was teetering on the edge of the yawning pit. Both hands came up, crossing diagonally across her chest, bringing both blade and spring to press against her neck, resting against the jugular veins.

"Everybody, stop!" Winry ordered.

No one moved.

"Right," she continued, blinking rapidly to try and compensate for her blurring vision. "I currently have two very sharp implements pressed to my jugular veins, and with enough pressure I am quite capable of opening my carotid arteries."

She waited a heartbeat to let that sink in, struggling to ignore Ed's strangled cry.

"And why should we care?" Dante bluffed.

Winry had to admire her skill. If she hadn't just heard the woman saying they needed her alive, Winry would have believed her.

Instead, she smiled grimly. "I heard what you were saying. Something about needing living blood to do whatever you're trying to do here, right?"

A slight twitch of Dante's cheek was the only indication that she had heard. "Even if you slit your own throat, we can always use the blood _as_ you're dying."

"If you look closely," Winry said flatly, "You'll see that I'm standing at the edge of the pit that Mr. Armstrong so kindly opened in the middle of the floor. If I cut my throat _and_ fall into it...well, by the time you manage to haul me up again, I think I'm going to be well and truly dead, wouldn't you agree?"

Ed made a small, choked sound, like a lost kitten.

"Now that we've covered the basics," Winry flicked her head in Al's direction. "You,Water-Lady-That-Looks-Like-Ed's-Mum, get your arm out of Al, NOW!"

Sloth's eyes flickered to Dante, removing the liquid limb at Dante's nod.

Dante meanwhile, was trying to ease closer to Winry.

"You'll want to stop there," Winry said, keeping a close watch on the alchemist approaching her.

"Come, child," Dante coaxed. "Do you really have to courage to take your own life?"

Truthfully, Winry was wondering the same thing. If the moment came...would she do it? Could she? But it didn't matter. All she had to do was make them _believe_ she would do it.

So as Dante moved closer, Winry pressed both blade and spring sharply into her neck, allowing drops of blood to well on her skin.

"Winry!" Ed yelled, half-paralysed with horror at seeing her calmly slicing into her flesh, inches away from doing herself fatal damage.

Winry didn't look at Ed, knowing that if she did, she would lose her courage. The cuts stung sharply in the cool air, like an affirmation.

"I thought I said not to move," Winry warned Dante, her tone light.

Dante halted, rage flickering across her features, before they went blank once more.

"Now, I want all of you to-" but Winry never finished her sentence, her vision – already hazy from the drugs – started to go black. Struggling to remain on her feet, she began to blink frantically, desperate to restore her sight before anyone noticed anything.

But then she lurched, nearly falling, and everyone knew. As though a silent signal had been given, the fighting broke out once more, the homunculi lunging for Winry.

Lust was dragged back by Seig's sheer strength, before some quick alchemy on Izumi's part turned the blood in the homunculus's veins to acid, Lust shrieking and regurgitating a slew of stones. Gluttony was knocked aside by a hail of meteor-like chunks of rock that Armstrong rained on him, nearly driven through the very foundations of the building.

Sloth dissolved, attempting to slide across the floor, but Al was there, transmuting her watery body to ice. She remained rigid and frozen for merely moments, bullets from Havoc, Breda, Fuery, Falman and Hawkeye raining down on her and shattering her form, before she began to agitate the molecules of her body and melted back to her previous state.

Envy tried to jump over Ed's head, but Ed wouldn't let him escape so easily. The automail blade was driven into Envy's ankle, and the homunculus was thrown to the ground. Envy only just managed to roll away in time to avoid the knife that slammed into the floor where his head had just been.

But Pride was the closest to Winry. He leapt away from Roy before the Colonel could stop him, his inhuman strength propelling him towards the girl teetering at the edge of the pit.

Winry only became aware of him when powerful hands knocked the spring from her fingers. She stumbled, her sight beginning to blur back into focus, trying to keep her grip on the knife. Feeling the blade being twisted from her grasp, she made one last desperate attempt to snatch it back. All she got for her trouble was a searing cut across the palm of her right hand.

Pride tried to grab the collar of her shirt, but Winry scrambled backwards, falling heavily, willing the lassitude sweeping through her body to recede once more. She'd never make it in time...

But Wrath was there, knocking Pride back, buying her time. Her legs as unresponsive as a paraplegic's, Winry opted for a faltering crawl, cursing the fact the drug chose _now_, of all times, to reassert itself.

With a shouted obscenity, Envy went after her. A sharp snap of Roy's fingers sent him up in flames, distracting him long enough for Ed to make it around the pit. Apparently deciding the alchemist was the bigger threat, Pride broke off his battle with Wrath and lunged for him. Only just managing to block the homunculus's sword, Ed was forced back, away from Winry.

Risking a peek around his opponent's shoulders, Ed could see Wrath trying to help Winry to her feet.

_'Never thought I'd see the day when I was actually glad for Wrath's presence...'_ Ed mused, but then Pride's blade drew a line of blood on his cheek and brought his attention back to the fight.

**oooooooo**

As Al was assisting the non-alchemists in dealing with Sloth, Riza was free to help Roy. As the shapeshifter threw the Flame alchemist into a nearby wall, he was driven back from the man's prone form by a hurricane of bullets, causing him to stagger away, vomiting red stones.

Riza stood over Roy, calmly tossing aside the empty clips and reloading both guns, her eyes trained on Envy. Roy regained his feet slowly, coughing and massaging his chest. He had a sneaking suspicion he'd broken a rib. He stood beside Riza, sending what he hoped was an appropriately grateful smile her way. They stood side by side, his fingers poised to click, and her guns ready to shoot.

And as Envy rose, Roy snapped, and Riza fired.

**oooooooo**

"Come on, Winry," Wrath whispered urgently, half-carrying the taller girl.

Winry strained to obey, but she felt like she'd already run a dozen marathons through a river of treacle. Her muscles were heavy and slow to respond, and she kept gasping for air.

_'What the hell is this drug doing to me?'_ she thought in despair. Even with Wrath's help, she was nowhere near escaping – they'd only just made it to the middle of the large transmutation circle.

"It'll be okay," Wrath murmured. "Just keep going."

"Need...to get...away," Winry panted. "If I...get away...no need...for the fight...everyone will...be okay..."

She knew she wasn't making much sense, but was glad that Wrath nodded anyway. Maybe he was humouring her...

But Winry knew, in the deepest recesses of her heart, that they weren't going to make it out of here without someone being hurt...maybe killed.

**oooooooo**

Envy blurred across the room, ignoring the bullets that peppered his torso and the flames that scorched and blackened his flesh. She was getting away...the mechanic was crawling away with that good-for-nothing brat...he had to stop them both!

The bullets he could ignore, and the lieutenant had to be nearing the end of her clip anyway, but the flames couldn't be dismissed. The bullets pierced, and the wounds healed easily as he moved. But the flames destroyed, and his progress was forced to cease as he regenerated from each of Roy's attacks.

So, as a lull was reached, Envy went for Roy.

A staggering blow sent Roy into the wall again, and he slumped, wheezing painfully. Envy's arm snapped out, elongating into a sharp lance, aimed straight for the Colonel's chest. Riza automatically raised her guns, but the triggers clicked, and she didn't have any time to reload.

_'No!'_ she screamed silently, already running towards the figures, with no idea of how she was going to stop Envy. _'I won't let this happen!'_

Roy, unable to get away with the breath knocked out of his body, closed his eyes and waited for the pain.

It never came.

Instead, there was a shout, and a sickening tearing sound. Something warm and wet dripped onto his clothes.

Roy's eyes sprang open.

Riza was standing over him, looking down at him, her eyes filled with pain, horror and...regret? Sorrow?

It was then Roy noticed the bloody appendage piercing the center of her chest. Envy's lance had found a mark – perhaps not the one he'd intended – but a mark all the same. It was buried in Riza's chest, bone splinters jutting from the hideous wound, blood soaking her clothes.

For several moments, Roy didn't move, his jaw hanging loose, his eyes starting from his head. His mind refused to comprehend what was happening, refused to accept that Riza had just saved his life at the cost of her own.

She opened her mouth, trying to say something, but blood bubbled over lips, thick and dark. The metallic fluid dripped from the end of Envy's makeshift lance and splattered his clothes. And that was when it finally hit Roy.

Riza Hawkeye had only seconds left to live.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_AN: Sorry for the delay, but this is a fairly long chapter and took some serious work (didn't help that my assignments are piling up, either). And thanks to all my reviewers, sorry I haven't had the time to reply to you, just know that I appreciate the feedback. And if there are any questions regarding some of the events in this chapter – hang in there, they'll be answered in the next._

**oooooooo**

Roy screamed, a horrific wail of loss and horror that would have made the damned cringe, staring at Riza.

The battle ground to a halt, everyone looking around, wondering what could have wrested a noise like that from someone's throat. Then they saw the blood that had sprayed across the floor and walls, saw Riza...and they knew.

Riza's eyes rolled back in her head, and her body went limp, suspended only by the sharp appendage impaling her. Envy smirked, and spun, hurling her across the room.

At Winry.

Envy grinned as the dying Riza impacted Winry in the back, the fall tearing her from Wrath's hands. The lieutenant's weight would tackle her down, and then the other homunculi could...

But he had forgotten Winry and Wrath were in the center of the transmutation circle. Winry fell, her arms outstretched to try and break her fall, her left hand landing squarely on Riza's bloodied chest with a horrific crunching sound...but her right hand tipped the bowl of Red Water. The crimson liquid spilled onto the floor, pooling around her hand.

And as the cut on her palm contacted the fluid, the Red Water mingling with her blood, Winry went rigid. The Red Water blazed with light, reacting to the energy in her blood. Winry tried to pull her hand away, but the liquid seemed to be sucked up into the cut like milk through a straw, entering her body.

And Winry screamed. Agony seared along every nerve, her very blood warping and changing within her. She felt a pulse pass through her, from right palm to left palm, a red light snapping briefly over Riza's body before fading, the pain leaving with it.

And when it vanished, Riza was unconscious. Not dead, not dying, just unconscious. A tattered hole in her clothes revealed smooth, unmarked skin.

_'What the hell did I do?' _Winry thought, panicking as she stared the woman beside her. _'She...she was dying, and now...she's fine. Did I...? But how...?'_

But then Wrath grabbed her hand, and she felt it again. The blinding pain passing through her body like a electric shock, flowing into the homunculus. Wrath screamed and fell away, writhing on the ground. His left leg and right arm vanished in motes of drifting golden light.

Winry wanted to tell him she was sorry, she didn't mean to be doing...whatever she was doing...but she couldn't speak. Couldn't even get enough breath to scream. She rolled away on the floor, agony seeping from every pore of her body – she felt like her blood was boiling!

Battle was abandoned as everyone ran for Winry.

"Stop Dante!" Hohenheim bellowed.

Ed clapped his hands, transmuting the floor in front of the woman to rise before her in a barricade. Dante crumbled it with a touch of her hand, lunging for Winry.

"I think it's time to take my new body!" she hissed, seizing Winry's hand in her own, pushing her fingers into the gash, trying to draw upon the power that had regenerated Riza and felled Wrath.

"NO!" Ed yelled.

Dante closed her eyes, alchemical power beginning to swirl around her, attempting to transfer her soul into Winry's body. Winry let out a sound that could only be described as a howl, her back arching so violently it looked like her spine would snap.

Winry's mind went blank. She felt as though her skin was bubbling, her flesh trying to house something too small for it. Her head whipped from side to side, her screams becoming choked gasps. What has happening to her?

Then something exploded from her body. There was no other way to describe it. A red haze rushed out from her skin, permeating the room like a cloud of light.

Winry slipped into unconsciousness.

**oooooooo**

Ed nearly screamed when what looked like red light poured from Winry's body. Winry slumped like a broken doll, and Dante...

When the light touched Dante, she disintegrated. Her body broke apart like a leaf pile in the wind, drifting to dust, to smoke, then to nothing.

Envy shouted, though Ed suspected it was driven more by shock than sentiment, but then the light engulfed him...and in a few seconds, Envy was no more.

Red light bathed the hall, and one after another, the homunculi's bodies scattered like sand in a hurricane.

**oooooooo**

For several seconds, no one moved. The silence was eerie. Ed couldn't believe that the ferocious battle waging only minutes before was suddenly, abruptly...over. Just like that.

It actually seemed rather anticlimactic.

But then he heard someone calling Winry's name. Crying out for her help in what sounded suspiciously like a sob.

"Winry? Winry...you have to wake up. Winry, please...Mum's gone, and so is everyone else, and I feel funny, and I don't know what's going on..."

Wrath was kneeling beside Winry, shaking her shoulder lightly, looking hideously distressed. Only it didn't look precisely like the Wrath Ed remembered. His skin had lost it's unnatural pallor, his eyes were blue instead of purple, and with his bare feet stretched out behind him, Ed could see no trace of the Oroborus mark.

But those observations were quickly cast aside as Ed realised that Winry wasn't moving.

"Winry!"

He practically flew to her, dropping to his knees by her side. Wrath looked up at him with tearful eyes, seemingly on the verge of bursting out crying.

"She won't wake up..." he whimpered. "Why won't she wake up?"

Izumi's hand hovered over Wrath's shoulder, but her fingers curled away before she touched him.

"It may not be Winry in there," Hohenheim said grimly. "We saw Dante's body destroyed, but that doesn't mean Dante was in there at the time."

"You mean...?" Al sounded horrified at the very thought.

"Winry..." Ed pleaded, not knowing if he was pleading for her to wake up, or for it to be _Winry_ who was lying there. "Winry..."

The girl's form shifted, a soft moan issuing forth. Apparently still caught in the dreamy world between waking and sleeping, she tossed a hand at Ed, dislodging his grip on her shoulder.

"Go away, Ed," she groaned. "I'll fix your automail later, let me sleep."

A few people chuckled, and the tension leaked out of Ed, replaced with a bone-deep relief. That phrase told him, as nothing else could have, that it was Winry speaking. Winry, not Dante.

"You have to wake up, Winry," he told her, feeling almost giddy with relief. She was okay! "We have to get out of here, remember?"

Winry's eyes blinked open, confusion clouding them, then remembrance returned in a rush, sharpening their blue depths like water freezing to ice. "What happened to the other guys?"

"I'll tell you later," Ed said, helping her to her feet. The story of the strange red light that had burst from her body and won the fight in moments could wait until another time.

"Are you okay?" Wrath asked, one hand slipping into hers.

In spite of the weariness eating at every bone in her body, Winry smiled at him. "Just fine...are we going now?"

"Be only too glad to," Ed grinned.

He looked around at the others...and spotted Roy some distance away, crouched over Riza, his fingers wiping the blood from her lips. His expression was filled with wondering incredulity, as though hardly daring to believe this was possible.

"I don't think she's going to wake up," he murmured. "Not anytime soon, anyway. I've been shaking...and calling...but I think she needs to go to the hospital."

Armstrong offered to carry her, but Roy declined, gathering Riza into his own arms and beginning the long trek back to the world above.

**oooooooo**

The journey took longer than expected – Winry wanted to go back to the room she'd been kept in. Whatever had happened in the hall had apparently wiped the drug from her blood, and she was no longer feeling the unnatural exhaustion. She was still exhausted, of course she was, but it felt _real_ now.

Wrath was leading her, Ed and Al to the room she had been held in. The others had opted for getting Riza to medical attention as soon as possible, and Winry was still very confused. She remembered watching Riza's bloody wound closing before her eyes, but she couldn't figure out _how_ it had happened.

All she knew was that the day she'd just had was setting a new standard in the bizarre and inexplicable.

"So what do you want in that room again?" Ed asked as they made their way down the corridor.

"I told you, my boots are in there. And I have some unfinished business with that room..."

Ed wanted to question her further, but the expression on her face – that combination of resolve and secret glee – told him that he probably shouldn't ask. Her walk was a little awkward – both arms encircled the boy at her side.

Wrath was clinging to Winry's arm like a burr, gripping so tightly Ed was surprised Winry wasn't wincing. But he could hardly blame the kid for wanting some comfort. He'd just lost what he considered his family, spontaneous and mysterious alchemy had made him human, and Winry was probably the one thing he felt he could still trust. He kept looking at her fearfully, as though afraid that she might disappear at any moment.

"Here it is," Winry smiled, kicking the door open.

Ed wondered if he should be surprised at such a violent action when it wouldn't have taken much effort to open it. He was certainly surprised by the small pile of paper planes and origami in one corner.

Winry pulled her socks and boots on, and then stood and, quite calmly, tipped the bookcase over.

"What are you doing?" Al yelped.

"I promised myself that I'd demolish this room as soon as I was free," Winry said, grinning slightly as she heaved the desk over. It crashed into the bed, and the over-worn springs finally gave out, the mattress rupturing as the desk crashed through it and the bed frame to demolish itself against the floor.

Winry beamed, and mimed dusting her hands off as she walked out.

"By the way," she said as she passed the flabbergasted Elric brothers, "I found this – thought you might be able to use it."

She reached into her top (an image that made Ed feel as though he'd swallowed his tongue), and produced a a thin book. She thrust it into his hand. Ed took it automatically, flipping it open, finding it full of information on the Philosopher's Stone.

And he found himself touched. Winry had been abducted, held prisoner...and she'd still taken the trouble to steal a book she thought she could help him in his quest.

"What're we going to do now?" Wrath asked, still clutching to Winry's arm.

"We're going to look for my toolbox," Winry nodded down at him. "I'm sure I remember Envy kicking it in the elevator."

Ed grimaced at the mention of Envy, remembering what the homunculus had said to him. He was sure the images of Winry's rape that Envy had planted in his head were fictional, but that made them no less sickening.

"Okay," Wrath mumbled. "But I feel kinda weird...like I just want to lie real still and close my eyes..."

Winry smiled gently. "That's called being sleepy. And who wouldn't be, after a day like ours? I'll carry you...if you want?"

Wrath nodded, and Winry picked him up, one arm under the back of his legs, the other around his back so he sat upright in her grasp, his head resting on her shoulder. He murmured something unintelligible and closed his eyes, his arms around her neck.

Ed was struck by how maternal Winry looked.

She turned back to them. "Now, about my toolbox..."

**oooooooo**

In the end, the toolbox was discovered in a small cupboard, almost right next to the elevator. Once above ground again, they headed straight for the hospital.

All four risked a peek into the room that housed Riza Hawkeye. The blonde sharpshooter was clearly still dead to the world (that fact that she wasn't dead, period, was what still puzzled Winry) and Roy was sitting beside her bed, holding her hand and stroking her cheek. He seemed to be talking to her, they could see his lips moving, but no words could be discerned.

Ordinarily, Ed would have leapt at the chance to taunt his superior, but he didn't have the heart to say anything. Catching him and Riza in a passionate liplock would have been different, but this seemed almost...sacred.

They closed the door.

**oooooooo**

"I just need some tests," Winry said, emerging from behind the screen in a baggy hospital gown, her clothes neatly folded and resting on a chair. "They say it won't take long, but if you guys don't want to stay..."

"We'll stay," Ed said, slouching in a nearby chair.

Truthfully, he didn't want to leave Winry alone. She'd already been seen to by the nurses – he had too – and now sported bandages wrapped around both wrists and her right hand, in addition to a small square of gauze taped to her neck. The bandages seemed to emphasise her injuries, making the prominent bruises on either side of her face and the faint line around her throat stand out all the more. Ed couldn't help but wonder what other injuries were concealed beneath the gown.

Winry smiled, though she felt more than a little nervous. The test she was about to undergo would be deeply uncomfortable, but necessary. She needed to know if Envy had...done anything to her while she was unconscious.

"Just lie on the table and put your feet in the stirrups, honey," the nurse told her when she entered the examination room.

Winry did as requested, her fists bunching in the fabric of the gown to try to hide her anxiety as the nurse eased the hem of cloth up to her hips.

"This may feel a little uncomfortable, but just try to relax or your muscles will tense inward."

Winry took a deep breath, and attempted to follow the nurse's instructions.

**oooooooo**

Ed jiggled his foot against the chair leg, trying to block out Wrath's questions.

"Is Winry coming back soon?"

"Of course she is," Al soothed, and Ed silently thanked him for taking on the task of dealing with the child.

Ed was left alone with his thoughts. The most prominent of which was why Winry needed tests. He knew she needed medical attention, but tests?

And he had no idea how to tell her what happened in that underground amphitheater. How could he even begin to explain it? _'As for how we won, Winry...Dante tried to invade your body, and then this red light exploded from you and vaporised her and the homunculi.'_

Even in his head, it didn't make sense.

He sighed, idly kicking the chair that Winry's clothes rested on. Her pants shifted, and a small piece of paper fluttered to the floor.

Ed picked it up.

A sketch of Wrath sat in one corner, opposite a less professional-looking one of Winry. Random lines and shaped skated across the edges of the page, and in the center, several lines ran through a title; _'Examining Electrical Alchemy'_ , and another was scrawled below it in what looked like Winry's handwriting.

_'What I'm Going To Do When I Get Out Of Here.'_

Ed smiled. Even after several hours as a prisoner, it seemed that Winry's spirit had still remained intact.

Giving in to his curiosity, Ed began to read.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

_AN: Extra long chapter, but there is still one more to come, hang in there, people! Please note, there are some scary and rather disturbing nightmares in this chapter. Maybe I should up the rating..._

_And of course, thanks to all my reviewers!_

**oooooooo**

Ed smiled as he read the first item on Winry's list.

_1) Give the book to Ed._

He smiled a little. Typical Winry, practicality above all things.

_2) Buy a watch._

Okay, that one was a bit puzzling. What did she want a watch for?

_3) Explain to Envy that I never accepted money for sleeping with Ed (never slept with him, period), and thus, cannot be called his whore._

Ed went stiff, the mention of Envy's name causing the homunculus's ugly words to resound in his head again. They might have been lies, but Ed had a sinking feeling they would be making a regular reappearance in his nightmares for months to come. And Envy's implied insult to Winry simply made him more furious. How dare he call her something like that?

Ed realised the paper was crumpling in his fist, and quickly eased his grip, reading the next one.

_4) Demolish the expensive and tacky room I am currently being kept in._

Ed nearly laughed. That explained why she destroyed it.

_5) Learn self-defense (besides the wrench-throwing)._

Another confusing one. Why did Winry want to learn self-defense...unless she wanted to have some way of protecting herself from future kidnappers...?

But the mention of the wrench reminded him he still had Winry's wrench stashed in his coat. They'd found it in the Fuhrer's office, he'd picked it up, and forgotten about it. He'd have to remember to give it to her when the tests were over.

_6) Kick whatever bastard invented the hog-tie._

That one made no sense to him.

_7) Learn lock picking (just in case this ever happens again)._

Ed smiled again. Ever-resourceful Winry.

_8) Have a big party to celebrate my escape. Possibly with alcohol, I've always wanted to try some._

A chuckle slipped past Ed's lips. Winry had always wanted to try alcohol? The mental image of Winry, roaring drunk, made him laugh loudly. Al and Wrath gave him looks that suggested they were questioning his sanity.

But the next entries were in a distinctly more sombre vein.

_9) Give Den a big hug._

Ed could see sentimentality coming into play here.

_10) Tell Granny I love her._

_11) Give Al a big hug._

There were a few scribble marks above the final entry.

_12) Tell-_

The door opened, breaking Ed from his reading. He tucked the paper into his pocket as Winry stepped out of the examination room.

"How did it go?"

"Everything's fine," Winry beamed, still looking a little skittish, but distinctly happier than she had looked when she entered.

"You're okay!" Wrath yelled, catching her around the waist in an exuberant hug.

"Of course I'm okay," Winry laughed. "What did you think they were going to do to me?"

Wrath said nothing, just held her tightly. Winry patted his shoulder reassuringly.

"I'm going to get changed," she explained, gently disengaging Wrath as she picked up her clothes. "Be out in a second, and we'll go see the others."

**oooooooo**

In the end, everyone had been forced to accept some kind of medical attention (except Wrath and Al), and all were now gathered outside Riza's room, waiting for her to wake up. Wrath's grip tightened suddenly on Winry's hand, and she wondered what was wrong, until she saw him staring at Izumi and Seig, looking almost...shy? Was he remembering?

"Is the Colonel still in there?" Al asked, gesturing at the closed door.

Havoc, Breda, Fuery and Falman all nodded and sighed in perfect unison. Winry was unable to hold in a giggle at the sight. So perfectly synchronised, like performers.

"Dammit, isn't he done with the mushy stuff?" Ed grumbled, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the prospect of _Riza and Roy_.

"Language, kid," Havoc admonished. "Your lady mechanic's here."

Winry, Al, and Ed all burst into laughter.

Havoc looked rather put-out. "What's so funny?"

"Winry knows more swear words than we ever will,"Al explained.

It was true. Of all three children, Winry had been the first to learn swear words, and the first to use them. Apparently, living with a short-tempered mechanic exposed one to a lot of cursing from a very early age.

This was truly driven home to the brothers when Ed had broken his automail only three hours after she'd repaired it. When he and Al came back, Winry had let loose with a fifteen minute stream of cursing that had left both alchemists gaping like fish out of water. Al hadn't spoken for nearly an hour, he was so shocked, and Ed had made a silent vow to himself that he would never make the phrase 'cursing like a girl' sound like an insult.

Winry knew plenty of swear words – she just didn't use them as often Ed did.

Winry suddenly ceased her laughter, as though remembering something.

"Ed, you _did_ say you'd tell me later...what happened down there?"

"Uh..." Ed stuttered, looking around for some kind of assistance. "I...ah..."

"You absorbed the Red Water into your body," Hohenheim cut in. "And it combined with the alchemical energy in your blood-"

"There's energy in my blood?" Winry repeated blankly.

Ed had a feeling this would be a very lengthly explaination.

**oooooooo**

Riza's chest continued to rise and fall beneath the white hospital blanket, a steady, lulling rhythm that helped soothe Roy's frayed nerves. He held her hand in his, stroking his thumb across her skin, feeling the delicate bones of her hand. The warmth of her skin reassured him, told him she was still alive.

Roy had never really considered the possibility of Riza's death. Even Hughes's death – so close a reminder of their mortality – hadn't made him consider it. Oh, he'd _thought_ about it, but only in passing. Like the sun suddenly turning to a ball of dark, cold ice, Riza's death would have brought such misery and suffering, that the concept of it always seemed distant and unrealistic. Sure, she'd had her brushes with danger, but nothing like this.

For a few moments, Roy had truly believed Riza dead. And the memory of the utter devestation that knowledge had left in it's wake still chilled him.

She could have died. She _should_ have died, and the thought alone made him shake.

The doctors had said she was suffering from mild shock, and they wanted to keep her for observation. Exactly what they were observing, Roy couldn't be too sure.

A soft moan from the bed distracted him. Riza was stirring.

"Riza?" he breathed, gripping her hand a little tighter.

Part of him was saying that it wasn't right to be doing this – it wasn't _prope_r...but Roy had nearly seen her die before his very eyes, proper was the last thing on his mind right now.

So when Riza's eyes opened, Roy leaned forward and softly pressed his lips to hers. The moment was so intense that he nearly staggered back, startled by the jangling sensation in his body, by the inexplicable _rightness_ of that simple act.

His atonishment only increased when he realised she was kissing him back.

**oooooooo**

"So I have a Philosopher's Stone in my blood...?" Winry said, eerily calm.

The explanation had taken quite a while – Wrath had already fallen asleep in Winry's lap.

"Well, yeah..." Ed said cautiously. She seemed to be taking it a little too well...

"Actually, it's basically energy," Hohenheim corrected. "The untapped alchemical energy of those who died to create the Philosopher's Stone."

"Is that why alchemy always felt so...weird?"

"What?" Ed's brow furrowed.

"Well...you know how I screamed when you guys made me that doll? When it happened...it felt so scary – like my blood was being turned inside out..."

"It hurt you?" Al squeaked.

Winry shook her head. "No...it just felt really weird..."

"The energy in your blood reacting to the transmutation, probably," Hohenheim mused.

"You seem to be taking this pretty well," Havoc pointed out.

"Trust me, after the day I've just had...nothing would surprise me," Winry muttered.

But it was a little daunting to think about. She had the energy of hundreds of deaths running through her veins...

Winry shook her head, as though to shake those morbid thoughts out of her brain. So she asked the questions that had been plaguing her for some time. "So, why is Wrath human now? And why's he so nice? And how come Riza isn't dead? And what happened to that weird lady and the other homunculi?"

"Uhh..." Ed scrambled for an answer that would make a fraction of sense.

"I believe almost everything can be explained by what happened when your hand touched the Red Water," Hohenheim cut in. "Your blood became, in effect, a living Philosopher's Stone. But there was no way for you to control it, so it simply burst out whenever there seemed a need for it. It healed Riza, and reconfigured Wrath's homunculus body to that of a human. But when Dante tried to use that power to force her soul into your body, it must have triggered some sort of reaction."

"But why did Dante and the homunculi..." Ed waved his hands, "Just sort of...blow up?"

"I think when Dante attempted the transfer, Winry must have been aware of the danger on some deep, instinctual level. Her body reacted to the threat with the only means it could – by forcing that power out. Dante was caught up in the initial reaction, and that's probably why she was destroyed."

"But what about the homunculi?" Winry couldn't help asking.

Hohenheim shrugged. "The only thing that makes sense is that the incomplete stones they carried in their bodies reacted and disintegrated them."

Winry nodded vaugely. Didn't really make sense to her, but then again, very little had made sense today.

"But what about Wrath?" Izumi couldn't help asking, staring at the creature she had made when she tried to resurrect her child. "He seems...different."

"Maybe it's because he's human now," Winry mused, almost to herself. "When he was a homunculus, he didn't seem to really remember anything about that time when you guys found him on the island and brought him home. It's like those homunculi and human memories just don't connect. So maybe now that he's human, he's starting to forget what happened when he was a homunculus."

"But he was a homunculus when we found him," Al pointed out.

Winry shrugged helplessly.

"Well, I'll buy that," Ed said. "Makes a twisted kind of sense."

Winry beamed.

"So..." Breda began, "When do you think the Colonel will come out?"

"Probably not before she wakes up," Falman snorted. "And maybe not even then."

"He'll come out when Hawkeye leaves the hospital," Fuery stated, his logic unquestionable.

Winry giggled slightly.

**oooooooo**

"Are you sure you'll be alright sleeping on the couch?" Winry asked, tossing Wrath a pillow and several blankets.

Wrath nodded, arranging his makeshift bed. He, Winry, Ed and Al were all crammed into the brother's dormitory – the military was unable to find lodgings for Winry and Wrath on such short notice, and all four would be forced to share living space until other arrangements could be made. Winry was taking Al's previously-unused bed in the next room, and Wrath had the couch. Al would be staying in the room with him – Winry got the feeling that the Elric brothers didn't quite trust Wrath yet.

"Goodnight," she murmured, absently patting the former homunculus on the head as she ambled into the bedroom.

With a brief glance at Ed's empty bed, Winry curled up amid the crisp blankets of the second bed. Al had never had cause to use it – he couldn't sleep.

_'Poor Al,'_ Winry thought dismally. _'He can't sleep, or smell, or taste, or eat until Ed-'_

Her thoughts ground to a halt. If she had the Philosopher's Stone in her blood...didn't that mean Ed could use her blood to get Al's body back? She nearly bolted up from the bed, but then decided against it. Ed was probably aware of that already. And as he hadn't brought it up yet, that usually meant he was brooding over it.

Oh well, she'd say something tomorrow. Winry rolled over, and closed her eyes.

**oooooooo**

Ed yawned as he stepped into the tiny bedroom, careful not to wake Winry. He stripped down his boxers, blinking in surprise when a small square of paper fell from the pockets of his pants as he hung the garments over the end of his bed.

He picked it up, unfolded it...and gave a quiet snort of laughter. Winry's list – he'd forgotten he'd stuffed it in his pocket. His eyes scanned over it again, reaching the final article...

_12) Tell Ed I love him._

For a moment, Ed could have sworn his eyes bugged out of his head. He made several inarticulate, choking sounds in the back of his throat. Winry _loved_ him? Impossible, _he_ was the one who...

His eyes darted to the sleeping figure in the bed opposite his, feeling a foolish grin break out on his face. She loved him back! He almost woke her up, just to say that he loved her too, but paused, his hand on her shoulder. He should really let her sleep – she'd certainly earned her rest.

But even as he lay down, pulling the blankets over him and preparing for sleep, the smile still hadn't left his face.

**oooooooo**

"_NO!" she screamed, thrashing beneath him. But Envy was too heavy, too strong, and he held her down with ease._

_He tore her shirt away easily, lowering his head to sink his teeth into her neck. Her pants were shredded in swift succession, and he laughed as she cried out, struggling against him. His hands moved down her body, slipping into her underwear, exploring the juncture of her thighs. One finger slid into her, and she sobbed in despair. It hurt so much..._

Winry's eyes flew open. For a moment, she panicked at the unfamiliar surroundings, until memory returned. Her heart was pounding wildly, it's rhythm slowing as she relaxed. It had been a nightmare, nothing more.

Just a nightmare.

But Winry was tense, her nerves tightly strung. She felt spent, scared...and dirty.

She lay in the bed for several moments, trying to relax. The cringy-feeling in her gut didn't vanish, nor did the impression of uncleanliness.

She wanted a shower. Badly.

Winry wasn't stupid, she knew she displaying textbook rape trauma. She knew Envy hadn't succeeded in his attack, but she still felt the helplessness, the fear, the shame, the sense of defilement. She eased the door open, padding past the sleeping Wrath on the couch, trying not to wake him.

"Where are you going, Winry?" Al whispered.

"Bathroom," she said, trying to force casualness into her voice. "Be back soon."

In the bland, clinical white of the women's washroom, Winry splashed water on her face, trying to come to her senses.

_'Get it together,'_ she berated herself as she tore the itchy square of gauze from her neck and threw it into the trashcan. _'It's not like he actually got anywhere!'_

She ran her fingers across the bite mark, staring at it in the mirror, forcing herself to accept what it meant. _'This is the most he did, so just calm down!'_

With a soft sigh, Winry washed her hands and walked back to the room.

**oooooooo**

"_Ed!" Winry screamed, Envy's body crushing her into the mattress. "Ed, help me, please!"_

_He couldn't move. Why couldn't he move? They were right there in front of him and he couldn't do anything, couldn't yell, couldn't fight, couldn't stop Envy as he tore Winry's clothes from her body, a horrific leer painted across his face. _

_The homunculus's hands forced her legs to spread wide, holding them apart as Winry beat futilely at his shoulders, sobbing desperately._

"_Ed, help," she whimpered, "Please, help me, help me, help-"_

_The rest of her plea was cut off by an agonised wail as Envy tore into her, brutally invading her body, violating her, raping her..._

Ed shot up in his bed, the scream in his throat dying unvoiced. He didn't move for long moments, staring at the ceiling, trembling, gasping, his pulse galloping in his throat. His skin, his pillow and the sheets around him were soaked in the cold sweat of horror. He swallowed painfully, choking down the bone-deep terror still throbbing in his marrow.

_'It wasn't real,'_ he told himself. _'It wasn't real – it never happened. Envy lied, he was just trying to mess with your head, it never happened.'_

It couldn't have happened. There was no way Winry could have been so open, so cheerful, if she'd actually been...

Still, he found himself standing quietly, walking to her side. A smile tugged at his lips as he looked at her; eyes closed, face lax in sleep.

She'd kicked the blankets off, and her nightdress had ridden up, revealing her pale underwear and the swell of her right hip – the milky flesh marked with the greenish-blue of a recent bruise. Ed grimaced, automatically reaching out to pull the fabric down, but then he stopped, hand poised above her skin.

There was a scar. Small, only a few inches long, but a scar. Right where Envy said it would be.

Ed's heart rose in his throat. Trying to be as silent as possible, he sat on the bed beside her, looking closer...the bruises on her hips were finger-shaped.

_'It doesn't mean anything!'_ his mind screamed, trying desperately to convince himself. _'It has to be coincidence, it has to be!'_

But...he had to be sure.

Slowly, being careful not to wake Winry, Ed gently brushed aside the soft fall of hair that covered her neck. The gauze was gone, and he wondered what it had covered...

But then he saw it. A bite mark, beginning to scab over, the clear indents of two rows of incisors marring Winry's flesh.

Ed's lungs seemed to cave in, his breath rushing out of him in a wrenching gasp as his entire body clenched on a spasm of pure horror.

"No..." he moaned. "No...no...no..."

Ed almost collapsed on the bed. He didn't even have the strength to try and walk out of the room, to break down unobtrusively somewhere else. He knew he was going to wake Winry up, but was unable to stifle the sobs that wracked his frame.

Envy had been telling the truth. He had done it – really done it. He had raped Winry. His Winry.

The images of Ed's nightmare surged back into his brain, and now that he knew they were true they were infinitely more devastating. To think of Winry enduring something like that...bile rose in the back of his throat, and he dimly wondered if he was going to throw up.

Ed's head dropped onto his knees. He couldn't remember the last time he had cried this hard, and he could remember very few things that had hurt him this much. That one, tiny piece of knowledge trumped even automail surgery for the sheer agony it induced.

"Ed?" came a soft whisper from beside him. "Ed, what happened? Are you alright?"

The soft inquiry only made him feel worse. _She_ was asking _him_ if he was alright? It should be the other way around!

"Winry..." he managed to gasp out between his sobs. "I-I..."

The expression on his face chilled Winry. She'd never seen such despair, such remorse on any human visage. On instinct, she pulled herself into a sitting position, wrapping him in a tight embrace.

She half-expected him to stiffen and pull away, and was surprised when his arms encircled her, clinging to her like she was the last life-jacket on a sinking ship. Winry's stomach twisted as she felt Ed's tears on her neck. What could possible be bad enough, horrible enough, to make Ed cry?

"What's wrong?"

Ed choked, and it seemed his tears only fell faster. "Envy...he-he told me...oh, Winry, I'm sorry, I'm so s-sorry, I..."

"Ed?"

"Didn't know, I swear. If I did...would have come...would have stopped him...would have done _something_...I'm so sorry..."

Winry was really becoming alarmed now. Ed wasn't making any sense – so distraught he was beyond coherent speech. And she couldn't figure out what had happened to make him feel this way.

"Ed...what happened? What's wrong?"

"Envy...he told me...told me about...about..." his voice dropped so low that Winry almost didn't catch the last words. "...raping you..."

For a split second, Winry went completely stiff. Humiliation came first – the shame that Ed knew of her attack. Rage came next – at Envy for lying to Ed, for planting that horror in his mind. Finally, a great compassion swept her body – for Ed at being made to think the assault had been completed, and what that must have done to him.

Winry licked her lips, gently running her hand through Ed's hair as she spoke, "Ed...he didn't do it."

"What?" His head jerked up, his eyes crashing into hers. "But...he said..."

"Then he lied," Winry said calmly.

"But-but," Ed seemed unable to grasp the concept – the atrocity so great he could barely believe there was a light at the end of the tunnel. "The bruises...the bite..."

"He tried. But he didn't, in the end. Ed, I'm not going to lie – I'm not going to say he didn't scare me, or that I wasn't hurt," she took deep breath, and put as much honest sincerity and conviction in her voice as she could, "But I swear to you, Ed..._Envy didn't rape me._"

Ed was swamped with relief so great his head actually spun.

It hadn't happened.

He collapsed against the mattress as every muscle went as limp as boiled pasta, dragging Winry down with him, but utterly incapable of letting her go. Winry went willingly, needing comfort for herself as much as she was offering it to him. Ed continued to gasp for breath as though he had just run a marathon, his tears now from relief instead of horror.

Winry held him until he stopped shaking. They remained that way for a long time, lying together in the bed, their arms around each other.

"I should go back to bed," Ed murmured as his eyelids began to droop.

"Don't," Winry said fervently, "Can you stay with me? Just for tonight?"

Ed gave a tired grin, and Winry could see his exhaustion. Not so much physical, but emotional. The terrible thought of Envy defiling her, followed by the relief of the realisation it hadn't occurred, had conspired to drain him completely.

Then Ed did something completely unexpected. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead gently. Winry froze in astonishment.

"Goodnight, Winry," he whispered, his eyes closed and his breathing already beginning to even out.

Winry didn't move, blinking into the darkness, staring at Ed's lips. _'Did he just...? Does that mean...?'_ a slow smile spread across her face. _'Maybe there's hope after all.'_

Then Winry remembered her list – her resolutions of what she would do once she was free. More specifically, she remembered the last item.

Winry took a deep breath and released it bit by bit, gathering her courage. "Ed...I have something I want to tell you."

No reply.

"Ed?"

Nothing.

She shook his shoulder, just lightly. Ed muttered something and tightened his grip on her.

He was asleep.

Winry felt both relieved and disappointed. Disappointed that after she'd finally gotten up the courage to tell him, he had to go and fall asleep. But relieved that she could put off enduring the uncertainty of a confession for a while longer.

So Winry simply yawned, snuggled into Ed's arms, and closed her eyes.

They slept that way through the remainder of the night, wrapped in each other's embrace.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Winry woke up first, slowly becoming aware of light filtering through the curtains. She was lying beside Ed, her head resting on his chest, her arms resting around his shoulders. He was still fast asleep, both arms around her waist.

Winry smiled, and tried to sit up. But Ed's hold tightened a fraction, the heavy automail easily holding her down.

"Come on, Ed," she sighed, plucking at his arms. "We have to get up – let go."

No response.

Winry leaned closer, and realised with a shock that he was still asleep – the tightening of his arms had been an instinctual response. She tried to ease herself out of his unconscious embrace, only to find he was holding her too tightly.

Well, there was no help for it. She'd have to wake him up.

"Ed!" she called, shaking him lightly.

"Huh?" he groaned, making a ponderous journey into consciousness.

His body relaxed as he began to awaken, and Winry slithered out of the circle of his arms as he sat up.

"What's going on?"

Winry smiled again. "Get up, we've got work to do."

"Like what?"

"Well, first, we have to get breakfast, then you have to restore your bodies with my blood, and-"

"What?" Ed yelped, sitting bolt upright in the bed.

"I just said you have to restore you and Al's bodies with my blood, weren't you listening?"

"Well, yeah, it's just..."

"Just what?"

"You'd trust me with that? Even after..."

Ed found it incredible that she'd offer that. Hours after being plucked from the grasp of those who would manipulate her, harm her, even kill her for it, she'd trust him with it, so soon.

Winry turned to look him in the eye. "Well...who else?"

For a moment, just a split second, she saw Ed's eyes filled with something tender. Then it passed and he grinned.

"And then we have to work out what happens with Wrath," Winry continued.

Ed frowned. "He's nothing but a little psychopath if you ask me."

"I wasn't asking you," Winry pointed out, acknowledging that Wrath was still a sore spot. "And anyway, he's not as bad as you think. Even when he was a homunculus. He stopped Envy from..."

Winry stopped, realising that topic wasn't something either of them would feel comfortable with.

But Ed rose to his feet, slowly crossing the room to stand in front of her. "What did Envy do?"

"I told you he didn't-"

"I know, but you said...he tried...and I saw the bruises and the bite..."

Winry sighed. Ed looked uncomfortable, his pained eyes the only sign that he was truly distressed. From a purely psychological point of view, she knew they probably _should_ talk about this. Get it all out in the open, allow the healing to begin...or something like that. Ed's imagination would probably come up with something far worse than the reality.

At first, Ed didn't think Winry was going to say anything. Then she bit her lip lightly, and her arms came up, looping across her chest, looking as though she were hugging herself. He stepped forward automatically, pulling her against him.

"He...he molested me, Ed. It wasn't much; he pulled my clothes away, but not my underwear, he bit me, held me down, he...touched me. I tried to fight him, but my hands were tied behind my back."

Ed took a deep breath. "So, why didn't he...?"

"Someone called him away. So he stopped, but left me hog-tied on the bed, with the promise that he'd be back."

"Hog-tied?" Ed murmured, thinking back to her list.

"Yeah, and he looped one around my neck, so that whenever I fought the bonds, I'd strangle myself."

Ed tensed, holding back the urge to curse.

"Wrath came and cut me free, but he was thrown out of the room when Envy came back."

"Envy came back?"

"All he did that time was give me some soup, but I thought it was drugged, so I made sure I puked it up afterwards-"

Ed chuckled. It seemed Winry was more resourceful than he gave her credit for. Pride swelled in his chest.

Winry continued, talking rapidly, wanting to get it out _now_. "But it still knocked me out. When I woke up, Envy was carrying me and I pretended to be unconscious when he put me on a table. Except then he started...he started touching me again."

"How...how far did he get?"

Winry shivered slightly. "Not too far. I held still and tried to pretend the drugs had knocked me out, but I...I just couldn't take it. I was about to blow my cover and knock him away, when Wrath did it for me."

There was silence.

"So you see why I like Wrath."

"I never thought I would, but I could learn."

Winry giggled lightly, before turning serious once more. "Ed...what did Envy say to you?"

Ed grimaced. "You don't want to know."

"I know that it had to be about me...about what he did...Ed, please..."

**oooooooo**

In the end, Ed told her, in a stuttering, broken voice, what Envy had said to him. Winry felt another wave of compassion at the revulsion and horror in Ed's voice. Envy had deliberately seeded his lie with just enough truth to haunt him for a very long time.

"I thought I was going to be sick, Winry," he confessed. "That, or cry. I kept trying to tell myself he was lying, but he kept talking...I never hated anyone the way I hated him then. I wanted to kill him, and not just in the heat of the moment. It was dark...calculating...cold...if he hadn't died, I might've killed him anyway, just for what he'd done to you...and I would have been _pleased_."

Winry could hear the fear in Ed's voice. He was scared of what he'd glimpsed in himself – that he could truly loathe someone that deeply, so deeply, that he could have slaughtered them in cold blood and not felt the slightest hint of remorse.

"Envy hated you, Ed," she said at last. "Everything you told me, everything I remember...it all sounds so...personal. And when he was...he called me..."

"I know what he called you," Ed said, grimacing as he remembered the words written on that page.

"How do you know?" Winry asked, sounding honestly bemused.

Ed's mouth spoke before his brain caught up. "I read your list – you know, _'What I'm Going To Do When I Get Out Of Here'_ or something like that-"

He broke off, aware that Winry was staring at him as though he had suddenly transformed into a particularly dangerous animal.

"You...you read it?" she squeaked, looking absolutely mortified.

"Yeah," Ed nodded, slight bewildered at why she looked like the sky was about to come crashing down on her shoulders.

"You...you know...that I...?"

Ed's brow furrowed. _'What's up with her? Why would reading that list be such a bad thing? I mean, I love her too...wait, did I tell her that?'_

"I told you I loved you too, didn't I?" Ed said, "I mean, that was a conversation we actually had and not one I just dreamed about, right?"

Eyes as large and round as tennis balls, Winry slowly shook her head.

"Oh, well..." Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, Ed looked down at his feet. "Uh, do I have to say it again?"

Another shake of the head.

A slightly awkward silence prevailed, each wondering what happened now. Considering what they'd just discovered, their discomfort seemed ridiculous, but neither could help it. Did they hug? Kiss? Move the conversation along?

Winry chose the last option. "So, when do you think you can get your bodies back? Yours and Al's, I mean."

"As soon as you're ready," Ed answered honestly, pulling his coat on.

Winry pursed her lips. "Well, I'm really hungry, but it seems unfair to eat when Al can't until you bring him back, and you're only waiting on me to bring him back..."

"Oh, by the way," Ed cut in, feeling a suspicious heaviness in his pocket. "Here's your wrench."

He handed the tool to Winry, ginning at the way her face lit up as she took it.

"I threw it at Envy," she confessed. "It fell behind the couch."

"I know, I picked it up."

Ed remembered the fear he'd felt at finding her wrench cast aside, knowing that she'd never voluntarily abandon her favourite tool. He'd slipped it into a pocket of his coat, like a talisman for finding her alive and well.

"Thank you, Ed!" Winry squealed, lunging forward and kissing him before dashing out of the room.

Ed blinked, one hand rising to his lips, slightly stunned by the brief contact. Then he grinned, and followed Winry.

**oooooooo**

Winry practically danced down the corridor. Everything was turning out so well!

She'd seen Wrath eating breakfast with Izumi and her husband, and she had a feeling the child soon wouldn't be lacking for a home. Riza had been released from hospital, but she and Roy had yet to appear at the military headquarters. Winry had a hunch that they were otherwise engaged.

She was making her way to the empty room Ed had indicated, where the Fullmetal Alchemist was currently drawing a transmutation circle. When Al asked why he was drawing a circle, Ed had told them he didn't want to leave anything to chance. And a simple clap of the hands might be a bit dicey with such an involved transmutation.

In her hand, Winry held a clean, sharp knife – Ed needed something to draw her blood with, after all. In her pocket, bandages to cover the resulting injury.

"Hey, guys," Winry beamed as she entered. "Everything ready?"

"We just need your blood," Al admitted, sounding concerned. "Winry...are you sure you want to do this?"

She could hear the excitement in his voice at the prospect of having his body back, but he still had to make sure she wanted to do this. Winry grinned, sometimes Al was just too sweet – the little brother she'd never had.

"I'm one hundred and ten percent certain," Winry replied, stepping to the edge of the circle. "So what's happening here? Are you making the Philosopher's Stone, or what?"

"We're not making the stone," Ed muttered, re-checking the circle. "All we ever needed was something to bypass equivalent exchange, and the Philosopher's Stone was about the only way to do that. But now..."

"Now that my blood gives you a free ticket for whatever transmutation you want, you don't need to actually make the stone," Winry finished. "I get it."

She handed Ed the knife, rolling back the sleeve of her shirt. The lacerations on her wrists had scabbed over, but it probably wouldn't take much to reopen them.

"Go ahead."

Ed swallowed, beginning to press the knife against her skin...then he flinched back, pulling it away.

"Ed?" Winry's voice was confused.

Ed tried again, but again he yanked the blade away before it could so much as touch her. He couldn't do it. He knew she was allowing him to, he knew this would bring Al's body back...but he still couldn't bring himself to make Winry bleed.

"Ed?"

"I...uh...I..."

But Winry understood. He didn't have it in him to really hurt her, not even for a good cause.

"It's okay," she smiled, taking the knife from him.

Winry pressed the blade to the scabs on her wrist...and paused. If she went too deep, she could slice the tendons – she needed a safer place to cut. She chose her elbow, as it was easy to distinguish the vein from the main ligament.

A deep breath, and she flicked the knife, opening a small gash along the pale blue thread of her vein. Blood spurted, in time with her heartbeat, and Winry quickly turned her arm down so that it fell onto the transmutation circle.

"Go ahead," she said, gritting her teeth against the sharp burn of the open wound.

Ed however, was looking at the blood shooting from her arm. "Is it...is it meant to be pumping out like that?"

"I cut a vein, the blood fountains in time with my pulse, but I'll be fine, just _move_!"

Ed obeyed, swiftly placing his hands on the transmutation circle.

The world lit up before his eyes in pure white light, his left leg and right arm tingling as though full of pins and needles. It was happening, it was actually happening...

Al saw the flash of white light, and nearly shouted in joy when he felt a hot rush overtake his body. If he was still in the armour, he would never have felt it. But he couldn't call out, suddenly aware of the need to breathe for the first time in a very long while.

Winry gasped, squeezing her eyes shut as pain slammed into her body. Just as it had in the homunculi's den, her blood seemed to turn to acid within her. Not wanting to distract Ed, she gritted her teeth and fisted her hands, trying not to scream. The agony brought her to her knees, leaving her shaking with quaking aftershocks when it finally abated.

She sat on the floor, leaning heavily against the wall, gasping and trembling like Ed after an automail attachment. She heard his delighted shout, saw him throwing his coat over a pale body in the center of the circle. Winry wanted to ask if it had worked, but she couldn't get her breathe back. So she sat there, shuddering silently, blood trickling down her arm.

Ed could have sworn his grin split his face. Al was back!

His little brother was blinking, clutching the red coat around his naked body, grey eyes wondering as he held his hands up in front of his face.

"Brother...?" Al couldn't hide the growing excitement in his voice. Excitement...and relief.

Ed smirked. "I told you we'd get our bodies back."

He flexed his arm, shook out his leg. It was odd – the muscles didn't even feel weak or shaky, it was as though his limbs had never been parted from him. And Al's body didn't look as though it had suffered in the least. The hair was quite a bit longer, the entire body taller and more matured...but there was no evidence of tissue degeneration or anything similar.

His smile was turning foolish, but he couldn't help it. This was what they had worked for, for so many years...

The grin turned slightly ironic. Who would have thought that the answer had been right under his nose? All those years, all those long, far-flung searches...and everything he'd ever needed had been right at home, the whole time.

Al eyes had focused past him, and he gasped with shock. "Winry!"

Ed whipped around. Winry was huddled on the floor, leaning against the wall. Her face was chalk-white, blood oozing down her arm.

His heart seized in his chest.

Ed sped to her, Al close behind him.

"Winry?" he breathed, "What happened, are you okay?"

She looked up and gave a shaky smile. "Fine...just...let's not do that for a while, okay?"

Ed grinned again. "No need."

He brandished his newly-regained right arm, a smug smile creeping across his face. Then he noticed her fumbling with the bandages, trying to press them against her injury. He took them from her shaking hands and tied them around her elbow, staunching the flow of blood.

Her eyes flew to his arm, then to Al.

"Hey, Winry," Al chuckled nervously.

Winry beamed, and caught him in a one-armed hug. "God, Al...it's been so long..."

"Winry..." Al choked, hugging her fiercely. "You feel so...warm...I never thought..."

Ed smiled, watching the two people he loved most in the world embrace, chuckling and wiping at their eyes. He could barely believe it. He continued to flex the fingers of his right hands and the toes of his left foot, still unable to comprehend that his quest was over. Finished. Done.

To tell the truth, he felt a bit anxious about what the future would hold. His mission had dominated his life, what would he do now that it was gone?

Winry was laughing as Al's hands smoothed across her cheeks, desperate for touch, for human contact. Her eyes rose to Ed's, and she smiled.

_'I love you,'_ she mouthed.

His fears about the future subsided, and Ed grinned back. "Ditto."

After all, any future with Winry in it was okay with him.

**End.**

_AN: That's it, people! It's been an interesting journey - thanks to all my reviewers, who helped get me through it. Couldn't have done it without you guys. Special mention to **Alisi Thorndyke**, **Nilmiel and Kenya**, **please-knock**, **words without**, **romance rocker**, **Suteki no Baka**, _and _**Magic Noise**, who've followed it extremely faithfully (I've probably missed someone here, and if I have, I apologise for it). But thanks to all who reviewed, you gave me inspiration and motivated me to write the best I could._


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